The president joined a host of political, diplomatic and religious leaders for the annual National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday (February 7). By tradition, participants put aside differences to pray for the nation and the world. Obama told the group he wished that spirit would continue after the breakfast as well:

President Obama: “You’d like to think that the shelf life wasn’t so short. But I go back to the Oval Office, and I start watching the cable news networks, and it’s like we didn’t pray.”

At the breakfast, the president announced that his longtime point-man on faith issues, Joshua Dubois, was stepping down as head of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.