Before 9 a.m., a group of lobbyists began showing up at the White House security gates with the chief executives of their companies, all of whom serve on President Obama’s jobs council, to be checked in for a roundtable with the president.

George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, are expected to return to the White House later this month to be honored by President Barack Obama with the unveiling of their official portraits that will hang at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The White House confirmed on Friday that the Bushes are slated to revisit their Washington home of eight years on May 31 for a rare joint appearance between the current and past president.

Global investors increasingly prefer President Barack Obama to Republican challenger Mitt Romney and most say they believe the incumbent will remain in the White House for another four years.

On this week's NBC special about the killing of Osama bin Laden, Brian Williams repeatedly held up the famous photo of administration members watching the raid and asked those in the photo, "What does it conjure up inside of you?" This week also brought the latest job numbers, which revealed the lowest percentage of adults working or looking for work in 30 years. Maybe Williams should tape a follow-up special where he holds up a copy of the jobs report and asks administration members, "What does it conjure up inside of you?" Contrasting the White House's relentless focus on the bin Laden operation with its lack of relentless focus on the economy is enough to make one want to scream. Hmm, maybe Edvard Munch could paint it and we could raise $120 million to help the unemployed.

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WASHINGTON — Federal officials say the National Christmas Tree planted near the White House a year ago has died and is being removed.

The National Park Service says the Colorado blue spruce died of "transplant shock." It came from a tree farm in New Jersey last year and was planted on the Ellipse just south of the White House in March 2011.

The tree replaced a tree that had stood on the Ellipse since 1978 but was destroyed by high winds in February 2011.

Workers are removing the dead tree Saturday. The National Park Service says it has already identified a Colorado blue spruce to replace the tree and will plant the new National Christmas Tree in October, just in time to be decorated for the holiday.

Jeff Zeleny, NY Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama walks into the Roosevelt Room of the White House and takes his seat around a table. The West Wing, as on most Sunday evenings, is quiet except for the tight circle of advisers who gather for a confidential briefing on his re-election.

John Whitesides, Reuters
The battle for the White House is still in its early, often silly stages - a time when issues such as the economy and national security can be overshadowed by spats over which candidate would be better for dogs.But in the end, the November 6 election between Democratic President Barack Obama and presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney will hinge on 10 politically divided states, nine of which Obama won when he defeated Republican John McCain in 2008.

Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone
We arrived at the White House on Easter Monday, the South Lawn overrun by children and their parents enjoying the annual Easter Egg Roll. This was the fourth time in the past four years that we had sat down for an extensive interview with Barack Obama, but the tenor and timing were markedly different than the previous conversations. This time he was focused on the campaign, his thinking dominated by the upcoming battle for a second term.

Alexis Simendinger, RCP
If the White House gets its political way, "trust" will be a word President Obama and his surrogates use in the next few weeks as often as Obama has talked about "fairness," and Mitt Romney, once dubbed as hollow to the core, will increasingly be ID'd as a card-carrying ultra-conservative who bobbles into Etch A Sketch moments because his core is causing him problems.There are six words at the end of that last sentence that cry out for quote marks, but the deep-background rules imposed Monday at the White House preclude the use of direct quotes or identifying the...

First dog Bo Obama takes his inspiration from the Easter Bunny, according to President Barack Obama's campaign.

Below, a tweet from @barackobama on Sunday and a picture of Bo included in the message.

It's not the first time Bo has been captured on camera wearing bunny ears. The Portuguese Water Dog appeared in a video released by the White House last month promoting the annual Easter Egg Roll.

Below, more details on the event via the White House website:

On Monday April 9, 2012, the First Family will host the 134th annual White House Easter Egg Roll. This year's theme is “Let's Go, Let's Play, Let's Move” and more than 35,000 people will be joining us on the South Lawn for games, stories, and, of course, the traditional egg roll on the Lawn.

Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune
It is customary in the wake of a major racial eruption to say that we Americans need to have a national conversation on race. Yet the fury surrounding the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin shows why it is so hard for us to hold that conversation.The shooting of the unarmed 17-year-old has sparked nationwide protests and reignited chatter all the way to the White House about racial profiling, gun laws, hate-crime laws and even the risks of wearing a hoodie, especially if you're a young, black male outside after dark.

President Obama embraced his Irish roots at a White House St. Patrick’s Day reception tonight, taking a stab at the “birthers” who continue to question his heritage. Visiting Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny presented the president with an official certificate of Irish heritage noting, “These...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitt Romney had nearly twice as many votes in the Illinois Republican presidential primary as his closest rival Rick Santorum on Tuesday, with 11 percent of the vote counted. U.S. television networks projected Romney as the winner of the latest battle in the volatile campaign for the White House. With 11 percent of the vote counted, he had 56 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent for Santorum. (Reporting by Deborah Charles; Editing by Eric Beech)

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Front-runner Mitt Romney appeared poised to widen his lead in the Republican presidential race with a victory on Tuesday in Illinois, where polls show he has a comfortable edge over top rival Rick Santorum. Romney hopes a solid win in Illinois will give him a fresh burst of momentum in the volatile campaign for the White House and persuade Republicans to rally around the former Massachusetts governor and end an increasingly bitter nominating battle. ...

Republicans looking for a political opening to challenge President Barack Obama on national security got little help Tuesday from the top military commander in Afghanistan, who insisted that the White House is heeding his advice.

Malia Obama is safe and out of harm’s way following an earthquake in Mexico today, where the president’s eldest daughter is on vacation. “In light of today’s earthquake, we can confirm that Malia Obama is safe and was never in danger,” the first lady’s Communications...

MOLINE, Illinois (Reuters) - Republican White House hopeful Rick Santorum said on Monday he did not care about the U.S. unemployment rate, perhaps the nation's most closely watched economic indicator, despite being embroiled in a campaign largely focused on the still-sputtering economy. "I don't care what the unemployment rate is going to be. It doesn't matter to me. ...

It’s St. Patrick’s Day at the White House today. President Obama will kick off the belated celebration with a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny at the White House this morning. “The president looks forward to commemorating his fourth St. Patrick’s Day in the...

MOLINE, Illinois (Reuters) - Republican White House hopeful Rick Santorum said on Monday he did not care about the U.S. unemployment rate, perhaps the nation's most closely watched economic indicator, despite being embroiled in a campaign largely focused on the still-sputtering economy. "I don't care what the unemployment rate is going to be. It doesn't matter to me. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deficits for the next two fiscal years would be slightly higher than the White House envisions if President Barack Obama's budget plan were adopted, the Congressional Budget Office said on Friday. The CBO's latest analysis shows the plan would pile up $6.39 trillion in cumulative deficits over a 10-year period, but that figure is about $294 billion less than the White House estimated in February for the same 2013-2022 period. ...

White House officials Friday defended President Obama’s request that the government of Yemen keep a local journalist detained for alleged terrorist ties. Al-Sha’i had investigated a series of airstrikes in December 2009 against what Yemeni officials described as an Al Qaeda training camp in al...

The Obama administration confirmed Friday that President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke by phone amid confusion over Karzai's demand that U.S. forces leave posts in Afghan villages, a key tenet of the current military strategy. But the White House did not immediately confirm Karzai's claim that Obama had called him seeking clarity, and that Karzai had reiterated the demand.

The former U.S. senator faces charges that he broke federal campaign finance laws, allegedly using nearly $1 million from two wealthy donors to hide the pregnant mistress and prevent a scandal from erupting as he campaigned for the White House in 2008. He has pleaded not guilty.

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Actor and activist George Clooney visited the White House today to lobby the president on the plight of the people in South Sudan. “The good news is we feel like there is a commitment at a very high level,” Clooney told reporters at the White...