(CNN) - President Barack Obama's second inauguration will again include a "national day of service" and his inaugural committee includes honorary chairman roles for the four living ex-presidents, the committee announced Thursday.

Obama's public inauguration events will take place on Monday, January 21, 2012, though he will be officially sworn in for his second term of office on January 20. The U.S. Constitution specifies a presidential term begins at noon on January 20th. The public events however will be held the next day because the 20th is a Sunday.
FULL POST

(CNN) – The most expensive presidential campaign in U.S. history did not disappoint in the final few weeks, with the campaigns, parties, and super PACs raking in checks – and writing them – totaling millions of dollars.

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign brought in $85.9 million in the final three weeks of the presidential campaign, while the Republican National Committee ended the 2012 cycle with $3 million in the bank.
FULL POST

(CNN) - President Barack Obama and his family lit the National Christmas Tree on Thursday continuing a 90-year tradition started under President Calvin Coolidge.

Performers at the event included James Taylor, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, Colbie Caillat, and Phillip Phillips.
FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - Nevada casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam contributed $33 million to two major Republican super PACs in the closing weeks of the 2012 campaign, according to campaign finance disclosure reports filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission.

The couple donated $23 million to the Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads.
FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - After a series of meetings with both President Barack Obama and congressional leaders, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is rarely at a loss for words, declined to answer questions from reporters Thursday and left Washington in near total silence.

As it turns out, the rising Republican star's quest for money to rebuild his state's battered shoreline may be colliding with another crisis - the fiscal cliff. In other words: bad timing.
FULL POST

CNN's GUT CHECK | for December 6, 2012 | 5 p.m.
- n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

RESIGNING: TEA PARTY FAVORITE SEN. JIM DEMINT LEAVES SENATE FOR CONSERVATIVE THINK TANK… DeMint, in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, says there is “there's no question” that he will have more influence from outside the Senate: “After this last election it's apparent we need to do more as conservatives to convince Americans that our ideas and policies are going to make their lives better. The Heritage Foundation is the premier think tank, research organization, the premier idea group for the conservative movement. This will give me the opportunity to help take our case to the American people and to translate our policies into real ideas.”

Gut Check Full Service… CNN’s Paul Steinhauser breaks down how DeMint’s departure shakes up the 2014 battle for the U.S. Senate: “DeMint’s departure means there will now be 34 Senate seats up for grabs in the 2014 midterms with the Democrats defending 20 of those seats and the GOP defending 14. Also, South Carolina will be a busy place in 2014, as Palmetto State voters will cast ballots for two Senate seats (the DeMint special election and senior Sen. Lindsey Graham’s re-election in ’14) and governor.”

ESTABLISHMENT REACTS: A GOP establishment source tells CNN’s Dana Bash that DeMint “follows the trail blazed by Sarah Palin: leave in the middle of the term to make a lot of money.” #Ouch

RUBIO ROARS: “Sen. DeMint is one of the main reasons why I’m in the U.S. Senate. When I ran for the U.S. Senate two and a half years ago, no one thought I had a chance to win. Jim DeMint was the first person in Washington that believed in me and invested in me, and I’m eternally grateful.”

FULL POST

(CNN) – A top adviser for Mitt Romney's failed presidential bid weighed in on some of the campaign's low moments, pointing to Clint Eastwood's unexpected monologue, the '47%' comments and Superstorm Sandy as three challenges for Romney's team in the final months of the campaign.

In an interview with PBS' Charlie Rose, Stuart Stevens said Wednesday that Eastwood's now-famous skit at the Republican National Convention was a divergence from what the actor had originally planned to say.
FULL POST

(CNN) - Thousands of people protested "right-to-work" legislation in and around Michigan's Capitol in Lansing, leading authorities to block entrance to the building, police said Thursday.

The capacity of the building had been exceeded, Michigan State Police Inspector Gene Adamczyk said.

(CNN) - In one of the White House’s more elaborate photo-ops surrounding the ongoing fiscal cliff standoff, President Obama Thursday ventured nine miles west of Washington, D.C., to sit down with what his aides described as a “middle class family” in Falls Church, Virginia.

“For them to be burdened unnecessarily because Democrats and Republicans aren’t coming together to solve this problem gives you a sense of the costs involved in very personal terms,” the president told reporters flanked by members of the Santana family in their living room.

(CNN) – On one of her last official foreign trips as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton emphasized her support of the embattled UN Ambassador Susan Rice and brushed off speculation about her and her husband former President Bill Clinton's future plans.

Republican criticism of Rice following the September 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that left four Americans dead has complicated the possibility President Barack Obama might nominate her to replace Clinton as secretary of state. At issue are talking points Rice conveyed on the Sunday public affairs television shows following the attack which did not label the assault a deliberate act by terrorists. Critics have said she knowingly misled the public while Rice and the White House maintain she made clear the information provided was based on the best intelligence available at the time.
FULL POST