Obama insight: Being realistic on economy maintains credibility

When the waiter reached for the plate, President Obama shook his head and smiled as he asked for a few more minutes. He had been talking to his guests, and had barely taken a bite of his lunch. The new president was keeping with a longstanding tradition on days when the commander in chief delivers an address to a joint session of Congress: Around the table Tuesday sat television anchors and the Sunday morning interview program hosts and two senior aides

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Obama to lay out ‘game plan’ on fixing economy

In his first speech to a joint session of Congress, President Obama is planning to strike a more optimistic tone than he has in recent days by laying out a "game plan" to beat the financial crisis, according to a senior White House official.

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Brazilian revelers celebrate Rio Carnival

Aides say the president is expected to focus on the economy when he addresses a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening, but will also touch lightly on foreign policy issues. After much talk of engaging America’s adversaries, chief among them Iran, the Obama administration has made no move so far, pending a policy review.

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Zimbabwe court orders jailed politician freed

A Zimbabwe court has ordered the release on bail of a top opposition politician, but the country’s attorney general immediately asked for seven days to decide whether it would appeal. High Court judge Tedious Karwi said Tuesday that granting the $2,000 bail was “in the interest of justice.” “In my view it is impossible that he will interfere with state witnesses as the key witness is in custody and investigations must have been concluded by now,” Karwi said. Roy Bennett is the opposition’s choice to be deputy agriculture minister in a new power-sharing government.

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Japan’s Aso, Obama to meet

It’s a long trip — 6,800 miles (11,000 km) — for a short meeting, but Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso is scheduled to meet President Barack Obama Tuesday morning in an hour-long summit at the White House. The visit, announced last week, gives Aso the distinction of being the first head of state to be hosted by the Obama administration and comes hours ahead of the president’s first address to a joint session of Congress. “It clearly shows President Obama gives the Japan-U.S.

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Obama pledges to cut deficit in half at fiscal summit

President Obama pledged Monday to cut the nation’s $1.3 trillion deficit in half by the end of his first term. He identified exploding health-care costs as the chief culprit behind rising federal deficits during a bipartisan “fiscal responsibility summit” convened to discuss ways to restore fiscal stability without deepening the recession. Meeting with the congressional leadership of both parties, as well as a range of business, academic, financial and labor leaders, Obama warned that the country cannot continue its current rate of deficit spending without facing dire economic consequences.

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GOP rising star Jindal’s speech a ‘coming-out party’

Thrust into the spotlight as a Republican rising star, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been depicted as an up-and-comer capable of helping reshape the party and jockeying for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. And now, Jindal’s party is putting him on a national platform, awarding the once little-known congressman the political plum of delivering the Republican’s televised response to President Barack Obama’s address to Congress on February 24.

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Poll: Most Americans fearful about state of country

A new national poll indicates that nearly three out of four Americans are scared about the way things are going in the country today. Seventy-three percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday say they’re very or somewhat scared about the way things are going in the United States

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