WASHINGTON — On Tuesday night, the president will address the nation and Congress on the state of the union. But many will watch as well for signs of the state of Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON — With a polarized Congress already on the defensive, President Barack Obama on Tuesday will outline a five-point “to do” list for lawmakers that packages job creation and mortgage relief ideas he has proposed before, administration officials say.

WASHINGTON — In remaining aloof from the special deficit committee in Congress even as it collapsed on Monday, President Barack Obama showed his calculation more clearly than ever before: Republicans will never agree to raise taxes on the wealthy to balance any spending cuts, so let the voters decide.

WASHINGTON — In tapping Alan B. Krueger on Monday to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, President Barack Obama has picked an economist well known for his studies of labor markets just as the president is about to announce a renewed push for job-creation policies as early as next week.

WASHINGTON — A midterm campaign that has turned heavily on the issue of the mounting federal debt is likely to yield a government even more split over what to do about it, people in both parties say, with diminished Democrats and reinforced Republicans confronting internal divisions even as they dig in against the other side.

<i>WASHINGTON </i>— President Barack Obama declared in presenting his new 10-year budget proposal on Monday that “our fiscal situation remains unacceptable,” but he insisted that the country pursue his ambitious domestic agenda despite facing swollen budget deficits for the foreseeable future.

Advocates of more aggressive steps to address the national debt failed on Tuesday in their effort to create a bipartisan commission to press for tax increases and spending cuts, but President Barack Obama now plans to establish a similar panel by executive order in his State of the Union address on Wednesday.

After months of focusing on Afghanistan and health care, President Barack Obama turned his attention on Thursday to the high level of joblessness, but offered no promise that he could do much to bring unemployment down quickly even as he comes under pressure from his own party to do more.

With unemployment expected to rise well into next year even as the economy slowly recovers, the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are discussing extending several safety net programs as well as proposing new tax incentives for businesses to renew hiring.

The crisis on Wall Street will leave the next president facing tough choices about how best to regulate the financial system, and although neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Sen. John McCain has yet offered a detailed plan, their records and the principles they have set out so far suggest they could come at the issue in very different ways.