I am Sam Adams

Leading Republican strategists say that if he is serious about a presidential race in 2012, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is running out of time to build the kind of national campaign and fundraising organization he will need. But, they added, the tough-talking governor immediately would become a top-tier candidate with a real chance of winning the GOP nomination.

After suing Arizona and Alabama over their strict immigration laws, the Obama regime is seriously weighing whether to legally challenge similar measures in four other states.

The House Oversight Committee is expanding its probe of the Obama administration’s rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks, according to a letter it sent to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The investigation led by committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) reflects the ongoing battle between House leaders and the administration over the extent to which EPA can address climate change without congressional input.

The House Oversight Committee is expanding its probe of the Obama administration’s rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks, according to a letter it sent to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The investigation led by committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) reflects the ongoing battle between House leaders and the administration over the extent to which EPA can address climate change without congressional input.

President Obama has been touring the country, repeating a message for Congress about his jobs plan: “Pass this bill.” On Tuesday, in Denver, he said it seven times.

It still doesn’t seem to be working.

On Capitol Hill, the Republican-led House appears unlikely to take up Obama’s bill soon — if ever. Party leaders want to break up his ideas and farm them out to slow-moving committees for consideration.

Michelle Obama’s excursion to Target in Alexandria last night — captured for posterity by an Associated Press photographer who covers the White House — is part of a pattern by the first lady: She gets out of the bubble as often as she can.

According to news reports, Obama has also gone shopping with friends at Tysons Corner. She takes her staff out for burgers at Shake Shack. She has bought supplies for her dog at Petco.

The Obama administration welcomed Army Gen. Martin Dempsey on Friday as the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and bid farewell to Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, whose final day as the top American military officer was punctuated by the killing of a major Al Qaeda figure. 

President Obama used a more formal title to refer to Anwar al-Awlaki, as he announced the Al Qaeda leader was killed in Yemen Friday morning. 

Declinism could be the kind of “clean story” Obama seeks, one that would set new a new threshold for presidential performance. If the American people can be convinced that the nation really has been heading for a fall all these years and Obama, like the rest of them, is a victim of generational failure, it would take pressure off the president.

President Obama, continuing his sales pitch for his jobs plan, offered some tough love for the nation Thursday when he told an Orlando television station that the United States “had gotten a little soft” over the past couple of decades.

Obama was was being interviewed by Jim Payne, an anchor for WESH television, when Payne noted that he was about the same age as the 50-year-old president and was worried that his children would not have the same opportunities that their parents’ generation had.