President Obama lost the war in Afghanistan during the "Great Dithering" of 2009. This was the period when he had all his advisers, including noted national security strategists David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs, huddled together loosely for about nine months. They were trying to find the most politically viable way to deliver on Mr. Obama's campaign promises to personally track down Osama bin Laden and put his head on a pike while simultaneously running the corrupt Karzai regime out of town. Well, they failed in those efforts and now are simply trying to find a way to start leaving in time for Mr. Obama's re-election campaign.
A senior White House adviser predicted Sunday that President Obama's tax-cut deal with Republicans will pass by year's end, and a Democratic leader said the House won't "hold this up" despite anger over some parts.
Golf-loving Rep. John A. Boehner says playing 18 holes with someone is a good way to get to that person. That might be hint from the House speaker-in-waiting to fellow golfer President Obama.
Senior White House adviser David Axelrod said Sunday that he thinks the Senate will vote on a nuclear treaty with Russia before the end of the year and that there is support to ratify the arms pact.
Veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who is a special envoy on the Afghanistan war, was in critical condition after surgery to fix a tear in the large artery that moves blood from the heart.
President Obama finds himself in a quest for Democratic votes on Capitol Hill as mounting liberal anger over his tax-cut deal with Republicans has him pressuring lawmakers from the outside with high-profile endorsements and deploying White House officials to cajole them from the inside.
The auto industry is providing President Obama a good-news story automakers are making money, plants are hiring and the taxpayers' stake in General Motors is dwindling. Things are looking up for the president in assembly-line country just not the voting.
Top White House staffer David Axelrod indicated Sunday that the first stages of President Obama's 2012 re-election effort will start in the coming months, with Mr. Axelrod himself leaving the administration to begin the work.
The White House and Republicans in Congress edged ever closer to a deal Sunday on at least a temporary extension of all of the George W. Bush-era tax breaks that are due to expire at the end of the year.
