(REUTERS/Larry Downing)
–Egyptian VP Omar Suleiman talks with opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
–The Obama administration wants Mubarak gone, just not too quickly.
–As conditions in Egypt have shifted so to has the U.S. response. David Sanger writes the inconsistencies illustrate an unprepared administration albeit in a difficult bind.
–Constitutional mess that it is, Egypt will need a lot of legal legwork if real reform is to be enacted.
–Ross Douthat is heartened by Obama’s realism.
–OMB Director Jack Lew takes to the Times to lay out “tough” budget cuts ahead. He discusses cutting the growth of defense spending and alludes to tax reform without dropping the real R word: Revenue. But the thing that’s tragically missing from this op-ed (and Obama’s State of the Union for that matter) is Medicare and Medicaid, and any mention of the health care inflation which is ballooning their costs.
–Stan Collender looks at the specifics Lew does get around to and sees a political angle:
First, the proposals are going to put a lot of Republican governors and mayors on the spot. I suspect the administration wants to force these GOP officials to be seen lobbying against the spending cut proposals. Look for them to be invited to some high profile meetings at the White House with heavy media coverage.
–FCC chair Julius Genachowski is proposing to repurpose the Universal Service Fund, which helps pay to extend phone lines to rural areas, to include broadband access.
–Obama will make his much-anticipated address to the Chamber of Commerce today.
–The Des Moines Register catches up with who’s doing what in Iowa.
–Mitch Daniels lists some health reform demands in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
–Bob McDonnell dips a toe in the national political pond.
–Politico toppers Jim VandeHei and John Harris argue Obama’s rebound in the polls is thanks to a duped, centrism-loving press corps.
–Saints Quarterback Drew Brees says he has political ambitions. NFL players have been pretty active, at least on the money side, and I can think of at least one or two former players in Congress.
–And political bets on the Super Bowl get pretty ridiculous.