(CNN) - President Barack Obama's reelection campaign unveiled Thursday a 17-minute long video painting a glowing portrait of the president's first three years in office.

The theme: President Obama inherited one of the worst financial meltdowns in history and, despite the odds, improved the economic picture while racking up accomplishments that should make key Democratic constituencies happy.

(CNN) – Democratic New York Rep. Gary Ackerman announced Thursday that he will retire at the end of his current term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I’ve been truly privileged to have had the opportunity to fight for the beliefs of my neighbors in both the State Capitol and in the halls of Congress,” the 15-term congressman said in a statement. “During my years in Congress, it has been my pleasure to address the needs of thousands of individual constituents and to influence domestic and global policy while serving on the Financial and Foreign Affairs Committees in the House.”FULL POST

Washington (CNN) - In a series of floor speeches Thursday, a group of mostly Democratic women senators made a high-profile and at times emotional appeal to Republicans to support an expanded Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). In doing so, they suggested Republicans were blocking the bill because it would extend its protections to illegal immigrants as well as gays and lesbians.

Many Republicans were furious at that suggestion and accused Democrats of election-year politics by trying to paint Republicans as anti-women.

(CNN) - The former mistress of 2008 Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is expected to be a prosecution witness in his federal criminal trial next month, a federal judge said in court Thursday.

At issue in the approaching North Carolina trial is whether money given to support Edward's mistress, Rielle Hunter, by the then-candidate's benefactors should have been considered donations toward his presidential campaign.

(CNN) – In an interview to air on CNN's "Out Front with Erin Burnett" Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, David Axelrod – a senior adviser to President Barack Obama's campaign – argues that sexist comments made by radio host Rush Limbaugh and comedian Bill Maher are both distasteful but should be understood differently.

CNN's GUT CHECK | for Thursday, March 15, 2012 | 5 p.m.
– n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

BREAKING:Democratic pressure on the President from ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE CHARIMAN SEN. CARL LEVIN, D-Michigan, ON “JOHN KING, USA” TONIGHT: “I hope the president sticks with what he said some months ago, that the reductions will continue at a steady pace after this summer and that he will not feel that he should stop the reductions as some of our key uniform military would have him do at the end of this summer.” (Full interview at 6 p.m. ET on CNN).

Washington (CNN) - Confronted with recent polling suggesting rising gas prices may already be damaging President Obama's political standing ahead of the summer driving season, the president on Thursday reiterated the case that neither he, nor any other politician, has the power to bring down prices in the short term.

"We are starting to see a lot of politicians talking a lot and not doing much," Obama told an enthusiastic crowd at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland. "We've seen this movie before."