The Trail

• Inside the MedPAC meeting, where the tough cost calls get made

  By Alec MacGillis Anyone in the Washington area who wants a glimpse of what the future of American health care will increasingly look like if health-care reform legislation passes can head over to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center Thursday or Friday for the big MedPAC meeting. Haven't' [...]
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  Posted: December 10, 2009, 4:06pm EST
  

• Peace prize, war president

  By Dan Balz If there were any further evidence needed of the distance between running for president and being president, it came Thursday in Oslo as President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. The politician who had sought the White House as the champion of the antiwar forces in his [...]
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  Posted: December 10, 2009, 2:38pm EST
  

• What should Obama do with the Nobel money? Readers respond.

  By Al Kamen President Obama is in Oslo, Norway, picking up his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize, which he has pledged to donate to various charities. The Washington Post's In the Loop column ran a contest asking readers to suggest some serious -- and some not so serious -- charities [...]
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  Posted: December 10, 2009, 8:47am EST
  

• War and peace in Oslo

  By Ben Pershing When President Obama was sworn into office back in January, it's unlikely that his aides circled Dec. 10 on the calendar in hopes that he would spend this day in Oslo picking up a Nobel Peace Prize, an award that has probably spawned more headaches in the [...]
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  Posted: December 10, 2009, 8:32am EST
  

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  Posted: December 10, 2009, 8:32am EST
  

• Senate deal on public option draws praise from Obama

  By Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery President Obama praised Senate Democrats on Wednesday for producing "a creative new framework" to provide coverage to uninsured Americans without relying on a government insurance option. "I support this effort, especially since it's aimed at increasing choice and competition and lowering cost," Obama said [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 3:25pm EST
  

• Gates, grounded in Afghanistan

  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates  (L) is briefed while visiting the I.J.P. (ISAF Joint Command) at Kabul International Airport December 9, 2009. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) By Glenn Kessler KABUL, Afghanistan -- What do you do on a rainy day in Kabul? Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates faced that question [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 10:54am EST
  

• Deal boosts prognosis for reform

  By Ben Pershing The health-care reform roller-coaster has been through more ups and downs in the last six months than are possible to count. With a Senate deal on the public option in the offing, Wednesday is clearly an "up" day. The Associated Press ledes: "After agreeing tentatively to jettison" [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 8:27am EST
  

• Black Caucus calls on Obama for more help for African Americans

  By Perry Bacon Jr. The Congressional Black Caucus's chairwoman pointedly declared Tuesday night that President Obama must consider targeting his policies to help African Americans. "The Congressional Black Caucus recognizes that behind virtually every economic indicator you will find gross racial disparities," said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). She added that [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 10:42pm EST
  

• Obama vs. Obama on infrastructure spending

  By Alec MacGillis If anyone needs further proof of President Obama's deliberative, thinking-out-loud approach to big decisions, consider his announcement in today's speech on the economy that he is in favor of major additional infrastructure spending. Just five days ago, at his big "jobs summit," Obama strolled into a break [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 1:17pm EST
  

• White House releases open government plans

  By Ed O'Keefe Federal agencies have four months to become more open, transparent and cooperative with the public's requests for information, according to new orders issued Tuesday by the White House. The changes deliver a big victory to open government groups have long sought to transform how the government presents' [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 12:55pm EST
  

• Gates on the draw-down and the search for bin Laden

  Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy The Post's Glenn Kessler and Griff Witte reported from Kabul Tuesday morning while traveling with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates that "Afghan President Hamid Karzai and ... Gates offered potentially conflicting time frames Tuesday for when American forces" [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 11:29am EST
  

• McChrystal and Eikenberry on the Hill

  Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal and Amb. Karl W. Eikenberry are appearing before the House Armed Services Committee this morning for the hearing "Afghanistan: The Results of the Strategic Review, Part II." Post Pentagon reporter Greg Jaffe reports: 12:29 p.m. -- The need for local government in Southern Afghanistan. One big [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 11:07am EST
  

• Another day, another reform compromise

  By Ben Pershing The year -- and this session of Congress -- may be nearly over, but it's never too late for yet another sweeping revision of the health-care reform proposals that have been under consideration for months. Major changes are afoot in the Senate: "A potential deal took shape" [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 8:31am EST
  

• Salahi subpoenas will be considered Wednesday

  Updated 4:19 p.m. By Garance Franke-Ruta The House Committee on Homeland Security will consider on Wednesday resolutions to subpoena White House state dinner party-crashers Tareq and Micheale Salahi, the committee announced Monday. The resolutions authorizing the issuance of subpoenas for the Salahis' testimony will be part of a 2 p.m.' [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 3:54pm EST
  

• Obama and Gore to meet at White House

  A late addition to the schedule: President Obama will meet with noted climate change activist and former vice president Al Gore Monday afternoon in the Oval Office, the White House announced. Obama also plans to meet with business and environmental leaders at the White House Wednesday in advance of his [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 12:15pm EST
  

• Obama administration will formally declare danger of carbon emissions

  By Juliet Eilperin The Obama administration will formally declare Monday that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public's health and welfare, a move that lays the groundwork for an economy-wide carbon cap even if Congress fails to enact climate legislation, sources familiar with the [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 9:48am EST
  

• Jobs will be focus of a busy week

  By Ben Pershing The health-care debate slogs forward in the Senate, reaction to the Afghanistan surge continues and the climate conference in Copenhagen begins this week, but a fourth issue will take political precedence. As Nancy Pelosi put it so eloquently last week: "Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, it is" [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 8:28am EST
  

• Jones: July '11 a 'guide slope,' not 'a cliff'

  By John Amick and T. Rees Shapiro Updated at 1:25 p.m. ET with entire Sunday talk show roundup CNN: STATE OF THE UNION - Jones: July 2011 a guide, not 'a cliff' The July 2011 date is not "a cliff" for withdrawing troops in Afghanistan, but rather a "guide slope" [...]
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  Posted: December 06, 2009, 1:25pm EST
  

• Salahis get the SNL treatment

  "Saturday Night Live" opened last night with a satire of the Salahis -- and the way their story has overshadowed the president's message.
  
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  Posted: December 06, 2009, 12:40pm EST
  

• Obama pledges new effort to spur job growth

  By Michael D. Shear Buoyed by a new jobs report that showed unemployment slowing, President Obama nonetheless used his radio address Saturday to pledge a new and aggressive effort to spur more job growth in the new year. The address came a day after Obama visited to Allentown, Penn., and [...]
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  Posted: December 05, 2009, 6:00am EST
  

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  Posted: December 05, 2009, 6:00am EST
  

• New date for Obama at Copenhagen climate talks

  By Juliet Eilperin President Obama has changed when he will attend international talks in Copenhagen in December, the White House announced Friday, on the grounds that there is a chance of a meaningful deal being struck now that both China and India have identified near-term climate goals. Obama had planned [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 4:52pm EST
  

• Palin flirts with Obama birth certificate questions

  By Garance Franke-Ruta Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin gave support Thursday to a conspiracy theory promoted by fringe groups, that President Obama may not have an American birth certificate, saying, "I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue." Palin's comments came in an interview on "The Rusty" [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 1:34pm EST
  

• Congressional report says White House has 'changed' lobbying relationships

  A new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service concludes that White House efforts to clamp down on lobbyists has "already changed the relationship" between K Street and the executive branch. Congress could pursue further reforms by revising federal lobbying rules, according to the report, issued by CRS analyst Jacob [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 11:29am EST
  

• For Obama, a restless base

  By Ben Pershing Are liberals growing restless with President Obama? This week alone, the president has announced a troop surge in Afghanistan that was greeted tepidly by fellow Democrats; the Senate health-care bill's public option is likely to be watered down even further; and the White House convened a job [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 8:28am EST
  

• USA Today/Gallup Poll: Majority support Obama's Afghan strategy

  In the first major poll of U.S. public opinion since President Obama's speech Tuesday detailing his new Afghan strategy, a narrow majority of Americans said that they backed the president's plan. The USA Today/Gallup survey of 1,005 adults, conducted Wednesday, also showed that Americans continue to harbor doubts about the [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 4:38pm EST
  

• Secret Service admits 'Mistake was made' on Salahis

  Your Browser DoesNot Support IFrames. Secret Service director Mark Sullivan acknowledged mistakes were made by letting Tareq and Michaele Salahi into a state dinner but said he's confident President Obama was never at risk. (Source: The Associated Press) For more on this story, see: "House chairman wants to subpoena Salahis," [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 2:55pm EST
  

• Bill Clinton on world leaders -- and Genghis Khan

  Peter Baker, White House correspondent for the New York Times, and Susan Glasser, Foreign Policy's executive editor, interviewed former president Bill Clinton at the annual Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York in a wide-ranging conversation that touched on topics as diverse as identity, virtue, and riding the steppes with [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 2:40pm EST
  

• Focus shifts to details of Afpak plan

  By Ben Pershing Two days after President Obama's major Afghanistan speech, the mixed reaction to his new strategy has been leavened by the realization that divides over the policy won't prevent it from happening. "Despite misgivings, members of Congress seem poised to back President Barack Obama's plan to send 30,000'" [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 8:34am EST
  

• White House review of Salahis' entry cites Secret Service failure, adds new guidelines

  Updated 5:45 p.m. By Michael D. Shear The White House acknowledged Wednesday that its staff had contributed to the security breach that allowed to uninvited guests into last week's state dinner and promised to implement new procedures to ensure better coordination with the Secret Service. Social Secretary Desiree Rogers has [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 5:35pm EST
  

• Huckabee PAC coordinator resigns in wake of controversy

  Updated 2:50 p.m. By Garance Franke-Ruta The Arkansas coordinator for former governor Mike Huckabee's political action committee, Huck PAC, resigned Tuesday, citing in part the controversy over Huckabee's decision nine years ago to commute the sentence of a man later linked to the shooting deaths of four police officers Sunday. [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 12:11pm EST
  

• Biden on the party crashers

  Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Interviewed on NBC's "Today" show, Vice President Biden said he did not recall meeting uninvited White House state dinner attendees Tareq and Michaele Salahi until he saw the pictures of himself posing with them. "I just assumed they" [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 11:59am EST
  

• Timeline: The War in Afghanistan

  From the first deployment of 1,300 troops in 2001 to today's force of 71,000, trace developments in the war in Afghanistan with The Post's Afghanistan War Timeline.
  
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 10:24am EST
  

• Live: Senate Armed Services hearing

  From left, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen testify on Capitol Hill in Washington Dec. 2, 2009, before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on strategy in Afghanistan. (Gerald Herbert/Associated Press) Wednesday's hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 9:00am EST
  

• Split message yields split verdict

  By Ben Pershing Back in October, Eugene Robinson wrote that "the decisions on Afghanistan truly are either-or," so President Obama could not -- as is his habit -- decide to split the difference on the war. But to friends and foes alike, Obama's speech Tuesday night demonstrated that splitting the [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 8:33am EST
  

• Obama's Afghan policy speech at West Point

  Following is the transcript of President Obama's speech Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (The Post's report on the president's address is here.) Thank you. Please be seated. Good evening. To the United States Corps of Cadets, to the men and women of our armed services, [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 8:00pm EST
  

• Live: Obama's West Point Address on Afghanistan

  President Obama addresses cadets as he speaks about the war in Afghanistan at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) 8:44 p.m. -- Timeline for withdrawal "I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan." [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 7:16pm EST
  

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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 7:16pm EST
  

• Obama aunt pained by lack of access

  Your Browser DoesNot Support IFrames. In an exclusive Associated Press interview, President Obama's aunt describes her anguish over no longer having contact with him after the revelation she had been living illegally for years in the United States. (Credit: The Associated Press) For more on this story, read "Obama aunt" [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 2:49pm EST
  

• Cheney, Rove take lead in prebutting Obama Afghanistan speech

  By Garance Franke-Ruta As President Obama prepared to address the nation about his Afghanistan policy, former vice president Richard Cheney and former White House strategist Karl Rove led the Republican charge to shape perceptions of it in separate media appearances that were published and aired Tuesday morning. Speaking to Mike [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 2:10pm EST
  

• Palin book sells a million copies

  Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin waves to someone in the crowd before signing her memoir "Going Rogue" as her daughter Piper Palin looks on at the North Post Exchange on Nov. 23, 2009 in Fort Bragg, N.C. (Sara D. Davis/Getty Images) By the Associated Press NEW YORK -- "Going Rogue" [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 12:30pm EST
  

• Jon Stewart on the White House party crashers

  The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cwww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorHealth Care Crisis In case you missed it last night, Jon Stewart used "The Daily Show" to delight in the gift from the "news fairies" of the Tareq and Michaele Salahi story. "Somewhere I think thousands" [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 11:22am EST
  

• Obama strategy a 'high-stakes gamble'

  By Ben Pershing After months of deliberation, President Obama will unveil his new strategy for Afghanistan Tuesday to a country -- and a Congress -- still divided on the right way forward. Obama is expected to announce at West Point that he is sending 34,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, and [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 8:28am EST
  

• Tareq Salahi: 'We did not crash the White House'

  Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy "This has been the most devastating thing that has ever happened to us," Tareq Salahi told NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday morning. Read more about the White House state dinner crashers' first public appearance on Lisa de Moraes'' [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 7:47am EST
  

• House Republicans ask Desiree Rogers to join party-crasher hearing

  Updated 12:17 a.m. By Ed O'Keefe and Scott Butterworth Republican members of the House Homeland Security committee have invited White House social secretary Desirée Rogers to testify Thursday, a committee aide said Monday night, about how a couple from Northern Virginia slipped into the White House last week for a' [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 10:49pm EST
  

• After 22-year absence, International AIDS Conference to return to U.S.

  By David Brown The every-other-year International AIDS Conference will return to the United States in 2012 for the first time in 22 years now that America's restrictions on visits by foreigners with HIV infection is set to be lifted. The six-day meeting, which in recent years has drawn about 25,000 [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 5:18pm EST
  

• Independents and Republicans sound off on Sarah Palin

  Your Browser DoesNot Support IFrames. As part of their research for Monday's GOP polling package, The Washington Post's Dan Balz and Jon Cohen conducted focus groups with Independents and Republicans in Colorado to get a sense of their feelings on former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Learn what they found, above. [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 12:32pm EST
  

• House Homeland Security Committee asks Salahis to testify Thurs.

  By Garance Franke-Ruta The next stop for the White House gatecrashers may be Congress, not cashing in. House Committee on Homeland Security chair Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) on Monday announced plans to hold a hearing on the White House security breach that allowed Tareq and Michaele Salahi to gain entry [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 11:50am EST
  

• Huckabee commuted sentence of suspect in Washington police slayings

  By Garance Franke-Ruta Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee started Sunday morning by dialing back expectations about his political future, but by evening, it was his past that was at issue when the Seattle Times broke news that the suspect in the slaying of four police officers in a Seattle suburb [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 10:50am EST