President Obama will give a major speech on the Middle East at 11 a.m. WashingtonPost.com’s 44 Blog has five questions that could be answered in his remarks.
The “Arab Spring” has led to shifts in power on Obama’s foreign policy team. The Wall Street Journal’s Jay Solomon and Adam Entous write:
The Obama White House has moved to exert greater civilian control over the military, challenging the views of the top brass in some areas, officials say. At the same time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s State Department, together with a more assertive White House National Security Council, has taken a lead in crafting America’s response to the greatest geopolitical challenge since the fall of the Berlin Wall…The military’s standing in the White House reflects lingering tensions with some of Mr. Obama’s civilian advisers that grew out of a 2009 debate over escalating the war in Afghanistan, according to senior U.S. officials and foreign diplomats.
More on their roles in profiles of State Department officials, the National Security Council and military officials.
John Berry, Director of the President’s Office of Personnel Management, said the administration has made “significant strides” in reforming the federal hiring process over the past year, writes The Post’s Joe Davidson. Berry, who formerly was head of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Zoo, is one of the highest-paid officials in the Obama administration. Read more in Berry’s profile.
2012 HEADLINERS TO KNOW
Jon Huntsman: “Can a Republican Moderate Survive?” on the front page of The Post. “Huntsman’s path through the primaries would probably be this: Leave the social conservatives to Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann, should they run, and instead focus heavily on Chamber of Commerce Republicans, Democrats and independents in the early states with open primaries. The main obstacle on that route would be Mitt Romney, a longtime Huntsman rival, who has a strong head start in New Hampshire and is eyeing a similar coalition.” The article | Huntsman’s profile
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) says supporters want him to run for president. NY Daily News: “Long Island Republican Rep. Pete King let it be known Wednesday that his Nassau County constituents think that’s a dandy idea…’I thought you might find it interesting that the Nassau County GOP feels that I should run for President,’ King wrote in an email to supporters. ‘What do you think?’… Contacted by The Daily News, King insisted he was focused ‘entirely on getting re-elected to Congress’ and not on the White House.” The article | King’s profile
Texas Gov. Rick Perry: “Paging Rick Perry: How a Southerner Could Sweep to the G.O.P. Nomination” from the New York Times’ Nate Silver: “Since 1980, a Southerner has finished first or second in every Iowa Republican presidential caucus… Package all the current Southern candidates together — you can throw in Roy Moore and Buddy Roemer and a Sham Wow or two — and I’d still need something like 20-to-1 odds to take a bet on one of them winning the nomination… I might feel differently, though, if the offer also included a couple of Southerners who have disavowed interest in the race: Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. I assume that neither is likely to to run — but if they did, they’d have some significant geographical and tactical advantages.” The post | Perry’s profile | Jeb Bush’s profile
Check out our 2012 Election Page for more headlines and profiles of all the candidates.
HILL HEADLINERS
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) Op-Ed in The Washinton Post just two days after resigning from the Gang of Six: “For the past several months I have been meeting with a small group of senators from both parties, informally known as the Gang of Six, that was designed to force the idle — not gridlocked — Senate, and then the House and the president, to enact a long-term deficit-reduction package. Our talks reached an impasse this week when, in my view, it became clear we would not be able to produce a balanced, specific and comprehensive deal that would improve on, and in some ways meet, the standard set by the Bowles-Simpson plan. I understand the disappointment, and real danger, associated with our impasse… The question, though, is not how we tried and failed but why the Senate has not even tried.” The column | Coburn’s profile
Gabrielle Giffords is recovering after surgery to repair her skull on Wednesday. Doctors at the Houston hospital where she underwent the procedure will provide a more thorough briefing on her condition. The AP Story | Giffords’ profile
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