White House Watch - Dan Froomkin's political opinion blog on washingtonpost.com - March 22, 2009

But Where's the Exit Strategy?

Obama, then a presidential candidate, met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul in July 2008. (via AP) In a speech this morning, President Obama established narrower, more strategic goals for the war in Afghanistan, announced he would send...

Quick Takes

Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Simon Johnson writes in the Atlantic that "elite business interests...played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they...

Cartoon Watch

Jim Morin on Obama the huckster, Kevin Siers on Obama's vision problem, Glenn McCoy on Obama's next TV appearance, Jeff Danziger on governing from anger, Tony Auth on financial regulation, Lisa Benson on toxic assets and Clay Bennett on hoping...

Obama's First High-Tech Town Hall

Obama's Internet town hall today. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) The White House's first online town hall mined the discontents of a nation upset about schools, worried about mortgages and college costs, despairing over lost jobs, eager for universal health care...

Some Alternate Questions for Obama

While you're watching President Obama's unprecedented "online town hall," (which started at 11:30 a.m. ET), compare the questions being asked to the "Beltway Elite-approved questions" suggested yesterday by Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas: " * Why are you so boring?...

Obama on Washington, Washington on Obama

From President Obama's remarks last night at a Democratic fundraiser at the Warner Theater: "Every once in a while we like to get out of this town. (Laughter.) Not because I don't enjoy Washington, but because it is important to...

Quick Takes

Carrie Johnson writes in The Washington Post: "FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III urged lawmakers yesterday to renew intelligence-gathering measures in the USA Patriot Act that are set to expire in December, calling them 'exceptional' tools to help protect national...

Obama's Brave Partners on the Hill

So far, Congress's great contribution to President Obama's ambitious budget blueprint mostly consists of reducing deficit projections by using some of the same accounting tricks that the administration was (justifiably) proud of itself for having purged from its plan. It's...

Easter Egg Roll Update

Tickets for the White House's world-famous Easter Egg Roll -- being distributed online this year, for the first time -- will be available at various times throughout the day here. Twitterers are reporting only modest success getting through the overwhelmed...

Cartoon Watch

Pat Oliphant and Greg Mitchell on those helpful Republicans, Steve Sack and Bob Gorrell on the financial rescue plan, Chip Bok on change, David Fitzsimmons on Obama's moods, Bruce Plante on the Obama critiques, Matt Wuerker on the Blue Dogs,...

Obama Brings It Down a Notch

Obama at last night's press conference. (Bill O'Leary - The Washington Post) President Obama seized an hour of prime time last night to move beyond the overheated chatter of the past week and return the public's attention to the long-term...

Any More Questions? Ask Them Yourself

President Obama's Whitehouse.gov is finally starting to deliver on its promise. After seven weeks of lurching and sometimes amateurish underperformance, the Web team that vowed to harness the Internet to bring greater transparency and public access to the White House...

Quick Takes

Carrie Johnson writes in The Washington Post: "Civil liberties advocates are accusing the Obama administration of forsaking campaign rhetoric and adopting the same expansive arguments that his predecessor used to cloak some of the most sensitive intelligence-gathering programs of the...

Let's Talk White House

What did you think of last night's press conference? I'll be responding to your questions and comments today at 1 p.m. ET in my Live Online discussion....

Cartoon Watch

Rex Babin, Pat Oliphant, Jimmy Margulies, Joe Heller, Bob Engelhart and Tony Auth on the financial rescue plan, Pat Bagley on nipping at Obama's heels, and Lee Judge compares Bush and Obama's sins....

Ten Questions for Obama

Obama's February news conference. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) President Obama holds a press conference tonight at 8 p.m. ET. Here are some of the questions I'd like him to answer: 1. After last week's disclosure of an International Red Cross...

Obama's Weak Spot?

Is AIG really a weak spot for President Obama? The latest Gallup Poll suggests it isn't. It finds that everybody connected to the AIG bonus controversy comes out looking badly -- except Obama. Some 54 percent of respondents gave Obama's...

Obama's Big Budget Push

The next few weeks could be make or break for Obama's daring budget plan. Lori Montgomery writes in The Washington Post: "President Obama will go to Capitol Hill this week to try to persuade skeptical Senate Democrats to support the...

Financial Rescue Watch

What to make of the administration's new financial rescue plan? You tell me. Comments are open. Here's what I read with interest this morning:...

Another Way to Escape From D.C.

The last time President Obama sat down for an interview with regional reporters, he made no secret of his pleasure in talking to people who didn't necessarily share the obsessions of the national press corps. "I enjoy the keen insights...

Quick Takes

Juliet Eilperin writes in The Washington Post: "The Environmental Protection Agency's new leadership, in a step toward confronting global warming, submitted a finding that will force the White House to decide whether to limit greenhouse gas emissions under the nearly...

The Cheney Reaction

Who does former vice president Dick Cheney think he's helping, exactly? Molly K. Hooper writes for the Hill: "Congressional Republicans are telling Dick Cheney to go back to his undisclosed location and leave them alone to rebuild the Republican Party...

Cartoon Watch

Pat Oliphant on Obama and the angry public, Tony Auth on the misplaced anger, Bob Englehart on courage, Tom Toles, John Sherffius, Nick Anderson, Pat Bagley and Rob Rogers on Geithner's plan, J.D. Crowe, Kevin Siers and Jimmy Margulies on...

Why Obama Is Still Smiling

Obama with Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes. (via CBS News) How can President Obama be so darn relaxed? It apparently has something to do with taking the longer view. Obama is confronting a massive economic crisis, an outbreak of...

Quick Takes

Thomas Erdbrink and Glenn Kessler write in Saturday's Washington Post: "President Obama released a holiday video greeting to Iran on Friday, offering a 'new beginning' in a tone that differed sharply from the anti-Iran rhetoric of his predecessor but that...

Obama to Cheney: You Didn't Make Us Safer

Obama talks to Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes. (CBS News via AP) President Obama last night forcefully rejected former vice president Cheney's argument that rolling back Bush administration anti-terror tactics has made the nation less safe. In an interview...

Cartoon Watch

Jim Morin on an impatient country, Jeff Danziger on Obama's Katrina moment, Mike Luckovich on cat herding, Walt Handelsman on Obama's bowling blunder, Joel Pett on the White House garden and Tom Toles on Bush's book deal....

White House Watch: March 22, 2009 - March 28, 2009