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President Barack Obama returns to the White House following a visit to the Presidential Inaugural Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., Jan. 17, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

New White House Photos

First Lady Michelle Obama greets David Hall, one of eight Citizen Co-Chairs for the Inauguration, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, Jan. 17, 2013 (Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

President Barack Obama meets with senior advisors in the Oval Office, Saturday, Dec. 29 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet members of the military and their families during Christmas dinner at Anderson Hall on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, Dec. 25, 2012. (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama talks with Vice President Joe Biden and Rob Nabors, Assistant to the President and Director of Legislative Affairs, in the Oval Office, Sunday, Dec. 30 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama listen to the Seneca Valley High School Chamber Choir in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House following a holiday reception, Dec. 5 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele Obama talk with the 2012 Kennedy Center Honorees in the Blue Room of the White House prior to a reception in the East Room, Dec. 2, 2012. Honorees, from left, are: Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy, Led Zeppelin keyboardist and bassist John Paul Jones, Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, ballerina Natalia Makarova, actor Dustin Hoffman, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, and television comedian David Letterman (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama attends a Sandy Hook interfaith vigil at Newtown High School in Newtown, Conn., Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama walks along the Colonnade of the White House, Dec. 12, 2012. (Photo by Pete Souza)

More new photos here

Now is the Time: Letters to the President from the Children of America

Happy Birthday, First Lady – You Are Loved

Rise and Shine

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President Obama in the Connecticut Post: As a society, our first task must be to care for our children – to shield them from harm and give them the tools they need not only to pursue their dreams, but to help build this country. That is how we will be judged. And in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, it’s clear we have a long way to go.

That’s why, last month, I asked Vice President Biden to lead an effort to come up with concrete steps we can take right now to keep our kids safe, help prevent mass shootings, and reduce the broader epidemic of gun violence in this country. And on Wednesday, I put forward a specific set of proposals based on Joe’s recommendations. Because while there is no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence completely, if there is even one thing we can do to reduce this violence – if even one life can be saved – we have an obligation to try……

Read the full Op-Ed here

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WhiteHouse.gov

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Today:

11:45: Jay Carney briefs the press

1:30: VP Biden delivers remarks at the United States Conference of Mayors’ 81st Winter Meeting at the Capitol Hilton Hotel in Washington

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ThinkProgress

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USA Today: NEWTOWN, Conn. — In this town where tragedy relaunched the nation’s debate over gun violence, people on all sides of the political divide expressed support Wednesday for President Obama’s proposals to ban assault weapons and establish tighter background checks for gun buyers.

“It shouldn’t be a Democratic or a Republican issue,” said Marsha Moskowitz, a Democrat who supports the president’s proposals. “It’s a human issue. It’s about humanity.”

…. Sandy Hook resident Alan Brown, a gun owner and “a life-long Republican” who voted for Romney, said Obama’s proposals make “a whole lot of sense.” “I don’t think our Founding Fathers who adopted the Second Amendment would have ever wanted Americans to have a machine of mass destruction in their hands,” he said.

…. Newtown resident Trish Dardine, a Democrat, said Obama’s gun-control efforts — “more than the killing of Osama bin Laden” — could be the “greatest act and lasting legacy” of his presidency.

More here

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Michael Tomasky: The GOP Will Lose on Guns – Conservatives’ appalling response to Obama’s gun-control proposals shows just how out of touch they are with America

Among the moon-howling reactions to the president’s surprisingly bold gun-control proposals on the right, the one that most struck me was the boiling indignation that he had the temerity to speak of, and surround himself with, school children …..

 …. If those lives were real to you, you try to do something. Obama keeps that one girl’s drawing up on the wall of his private office? Thank God for that. She is real to him; her classmates are real to him, the event is real to him. That he is trying to do all this – up to and including the assault-weapons ban, the executive orders, all with the sure knowledge that the Republicans might not only block him but then find some grounds on which to impeach him – is evidence enough for me that it’s real to him….

Full post here

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Time: As he prepares to pitch an expansive new package of gun restrictions to a bitterly divided Congress, Barack Obama has the majority of voters on his side. A new TIME/CNN/ORC poll finds that 55% of Americans approve of the job Obama is doing as President, compared to 43% who disapprove.

That ratio mirrors the public appetite for tighter restrictions on guns, with 55% of respondents favoring stricter gun control laws and 44% opposed.

…. The new poll also shows that Vice President Joe Biden’s approval rating has spiked to 59%, up from 54% in December…

More here

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E.J. Dionne: President Obama went big in offering a remarkably comprehensive plan to curb gun violence, and good for him …. Far from acting as if his work was now done, the president made clear that he is fully invested in seeing his agenda realized — and fully prepared to lead a national movement to loosen the grip of resignation and cynicism in the face of brutality and carnage…..

…. Most heartening of all was the tone the president took. He did not cast himself as an evenhanded umpire far above the fray, handing down ideas that all people of good will would inevitably accept. He acknowledged that the battle ahead would be difficult. He predicted he would have to fight the lie that his plan constituted “a tyrannical assault on liberty.” And he sought to mobilize a new effort to counteract the entrenched power of those who have dictated submissiveness in the face of bloodshed.

“Enough,” Obama declared, insisting that change would come only “if the American people demand it.”

Will we?

Full article here

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Greg Sargent: GOP officials are greeting President Obama’s announcement of 23 executive actions on guns today as if they constitute an abuse of presidential power not seen since the dark days of Watergate….

Guess who disagrees? The former Solicitor General of the United States … under Saint Ronald Reagan.

“These are either standard exercises of presidential power, or even more benignly, standard examples of the power of the president to exhort the public or state officials to be aware of certain problems and to address them,” Charles Fried, who was Reagan’s solicitor general during his second term, told me today…

More here

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