-The Obama girls finally have their puppy. Senator Ted Kennedy offered the six-month-old Portuguese water dog to the First Family, and the president’s daughters, Malia and Sasha, named him Bo (partly because their cousins have a cat named Bo and their maternal grandfather’s nickname was Diddley).

-On Easter Sunday, the Obamas attended services at St. John’s Episcopal Church, the relatively small church that sits opposite Lafayette Park from the White House. Obama, like every president since FDR, has worshiped at the Episcopal church on Inauguration Day.

-Here’s something we didn’t hear too often during the Bush years: the United States must lead the way on a number of global issues, but it can’t do the job alone. That was the core message of President Obama’s Saturday radio and internet address. “With all that is at stake today, we cannot afford to talk past one another. We can’t afford to allow old differences to prevent us from making progress in areas of common concern. We can’t afford to let walls of mistrust stand,” Obama said. “Instead, we have to find — and build on — our mutual interests. For it is only when people come together, and seek common ground, that some of that mistrust can begin to fade. And that is where progress begins.”

-Arizona State University, one of the schools where Obama will give a commencement address, will name its top scholarship program after the president rather than give him an honorary degree.

-On Good Friday, President Obama said he was seeing some good things with the economy. “What you’re starting to see is glimmers of hope across the economy,” Obama said. “Now, we have always been very cautious about prognosticating and that’s not going to change just because it’s Easter,” the president said. “The economy is still under severe stress and obviously during these holidays we have to keep in mind whatever we do ultimately has to translate into economic growth and jobs and rising incomes for the American people.” … The upbeat message has some in the media offering a warning that the public (and rival politicians) can turn on him if he gets too rosy, too quickly.

-One natural event for a president is to throw out the first pitch of the season for one of the MLB teams, but Barack Obama won’t be following in that tradition this year. The Washington Nationals extended an invitation to him to throw out the ball at its home opener Monday, but the president declined. The White House says he’ll be getting ready for his next foreign trip, to Mexico and Trinidad next week.

-The president will order the release of nearly 250,000 pages of records from the Reagan White House, Politico reported today. The records were kept from the public during the George W. Bush’s presidency.

-On Thursday night, Obama hosted what is said to be the first-ever Passover seder at the White House.

President Barack Obama asked Congress Thursday for $83.4 billion in new contingency funds to maintain U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and ramp up spending in conjunction with Pakistan to counter the Taliban threat to the Afghan government.

We face a security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that demands urgent attention, Obama said in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The Taliban is resurgent and al Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

The Defense Department accounts for more than 90 percent of the request, but $7.1 billion would flow separately through State and foreign aid accounts, including a novel, non-war related $448 million fund set aside to help poor countries cope with the worldwide economic crisis.

While Iraq still accounts for the larger share of the militarys operations, the request reflects a decided shift toward Afghanistan and forging a greater partnership with Pakistan.

The Pentagons portion, for example, includes a new $400 million fund in which Defense and State will work to improve the ability of Pakistans military to carry out counter insurgency operations and disrupt the border havens Obama spoke of in his letter.

This complements an estimated $1.4 billion in coalition military support related to Iraq as well as Afghanistan but already going more and more to Pakistan.

Within foreign aid and State accounts, the administration said Pakistan will receive about $1.4 billion, including an estimated $859 million to pay for State operations, security and embassy related construction.
See also

* Gays, guns put right on defense
* Obama to attend D.C. church for Easter
* Rove: Biden a ”blowhard” and ”liar”

The comparable numbers for Afghanistan include $3.6 billion in military funds for Afghan security forces as part of Obamas effort to beef up the Kabul governments own troop levels.

Within State and foreign aid accounts, the administration estimates Afghanistan will benefit from $1.6 billion of the request, including economic assistance and anti-narcotics operations as well as $457 million for diplomatic operations, oversight and security.

Briefings were held in the Capitol earlier in the day, but the formal legislative request running 99 pageswas not released until the evening after Obamas letter to Pelosi.

Major questions remain and the scope of the requests runs far past just the wars themselves. Aid is included for UN peacekeeping operations in Africa for example, and $38 million to try to ease the divisions in Kenya. Making good on past U.S. commitments, Obama includes $242.5 million for the Republic of Georgia to recover after the fighting last summer with Russia. At the same time authority is requested to effectively transfer up to $30 million in defense funds to State so as to improve the traffic control and air space system in the Kyrgyz Republican to help flights important to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Closer to home, Obama includes $30 million for the Justice Department to implement his orders regarding the shutdown of the Guantanamo Bay prison and $250 million for forest and wild land firefighting operations in the U.S.

Going forward, the $400 million counter insurgency fund with Pakistan was the subject of a second round of closed-door briefings Thursday and is sure to be important in the debate. The full scope of the $448 million related to the world economic crisis is a second question mark but is described as a bilateral U.S. program quite apart from any new commitments to the International Monetary Fund.

Altogether, within the package, new Pentagon spending would total about $75.5 billion. This includes $59.9 billion most directly related to operations, equipment and personnel costs for the wars; $3.1 billion for intelligence related costs and about $11.6 billion for additional procurement, such as $2.4 billion for Air Force planes and drones.

Four F-22A Raptors would be purchased, and an unspecified number of the MQ-9 Reaper, a medium to high altitude unmanned aerial vehicle which has been used in Iraq and now in Afghanistan.

Together with prior bridge funding provided last fall by Congress, total defense contingency spending would be $141.7 billion for the 2009 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

Obama pressed Congress to act quickly; the Pentagon wants its money by the Memorial Day recess. I want Congress to send me a focused bill and do so quickly, the president said.

But given the delays by the White House in processing the request, top Democrats, like Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) are already warning that it may be necessary to break the package in two to ensure that the most time-sensitive Army and Marine personnel accounts will not be disrupted.

Politically, Obama is sure to meet resistance from liberals opposed to the war funding, and the numbers raise fresh doubts about White House claims that it will need only $50 billion in contingency funds to get through fiscal 2011 just 18 months away. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), a leader of the progressive Caucus in the House, was quick to announce her opposition to the request, saying Obama must fundamentally change the US mission in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

At the same time, Obama has helped himself with most Democrats by fending off even higher Pentagon requests for new troops in Afghanistan and couching the U.S. involvement as more of an international commitment in which European allies such as France share a stake.

We are asking our friends and allies to join us with a renewed commitment, the president said in his letter. And he pledged that his National Security Adviser, Gen. Jim Jones, will work with Congress in establishing standards to measure progress in Afghanistan.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) has pressed for such benchmarks and appears to have support from Pelosi. In a short statement Thursday night, the speaker credited Obama with having presents a clear plan for both Iraq and Afghanistan but in the coming weeks Congress will also engage in a dialogue with the administration on appropriate benchmarks to measure the success of our investments.

Critics will argue that Obama’’s recent trip to NATO yielded less support than the administration had hoped. But at this stage, Democrats however nervous dont want to be seen as pulling the rug out from under a new president from their own party.

This ambivalence is captured in Murtha, a Vietnam veteran and critic of U.S. Iraq policy who chairs the House appropriations defense subcommittee and will help manage the bill.

I think its the best he could do, Murtha told POLITICO recently in an interview regarding Obamas Afghanistan-Pakistan policy. They wanted 30,000 more troops. Hes narrowed it to 17,000 plus the trainers. Hes putting the emphasis on international diplomacy and training the Afghans. Hes going to have an international conference, hes going to ask them to pay, hes going to ask them to put troops in.

Pakistans instability adds to the urgency to cooperate with the new administration.

If you take a worldwide view of our threats, Pakistan is No.1 because of the nuclear weapons and instability in Pakistan, Murtha said, The possibility that they would overthrow the government and have nuclear weapons.

At the same time, he admits a nagging uncertainty of where the increased commitment is taking the United States.

I have great concern about adding any forces. Ive said over and over again: It took me 15 years to realize that adding troops in Vietnam did not win the war for us, Murtha said.

The goal is still not clear to me, as hard as Ive tried to press them to tell me what the goal is, he said. I think its to train the Afghan army and get the hell out. I think thats what it is.

After all the past debates over Iraq, House Republican Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio pledges his partys help for Obama now on getting his funding.

Republicans stand ready to work with the president to again ensure quick passage of a clean troop funding bill, Boehner said in a statement Thursday. Micromanaging the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan from the U.S. Capitol is a recipe for disaster and I hope my Democratic colleagues understand that. We need to do the right thing, and that is to listen to our commanders on the ground and work with the president to fully fund our troops.

Cheered wildly by U.S. troops, President Barack Obama flew unannounced into Iraq on Tuesday and promptly declared it was time for Iraqis to “take responsibility for their country” after America’s commitment of six years and thousands of lives.

“You have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country,” the president said as he made a brief inspection of a war he opposed as candidate and now vows to end as commander in chief. “That is an extraordinary achievement.”

A total of 4,265 U.S. troops have lost their lives in Iraq since March 2003, and Obama said American forces had “performed brilliantly … under enormous strain.”

“It is time for us to transition to the Iraqis,” he said as an estimated 600 troops cheered. “They need to take responsibility for their country.”

Obama also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who said afterward that he had “assured the president that all the progress that has been made in the security area will continue.”

Obama said he had “strongly encouraged” the Iraqi leader to take steps to unite political factions, including integrating Sunnis into the government and security forces.

Obama flew into Iraq shrouded by secrecy and was shielded by heavy security from the moment he stepped off a gleaming white and blue Air Force One.

The plane touched down a few hours after a car bombing in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital city punctuated a recent surge in violence in the war-ravaged country. Many thousands of Iraqis have died in the six years of war in addition to the American losses.

Obama spoke favorably of political progress but also expressed concern that recent gains could deteriorate with the upcoming national elections.

“It’s important for us to use all of our influence to encourage the parties to resolve these issues in ways that are equitable. I think that my presence here can help do that,” he said.

Obama wore a business suit as he descended the steps of his plane after a flight from Turkey. He shook hands with Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in the country, then stepped into an SUV for a brief ride to Camp Victory, the main American military base in Iraq.

Under gray skies, the motorcade rolled past troops standing at attention. “It was wonderful to see the troops out there,” Obama said. “I’m so grateful, they put their heart and souls into it.”

Inside a marble palace, he was interrupted repeatedly with cheers from the troops.

“I love you,” someone in the crowd shouted out. I love you back,” the commander in chief replied. Scores of troops held digital cameras above their heads, snapping pictures and recording video of a day they would long remember.

Aides decided to scrap plans for a helicopter ride to the heavily fortified Green Zone a few miles away but attributed the decision to poor visibility rather than security concerns.

En route to Baghdad, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama chose Iraq rather than Afghanistan for a war-zone visit in part because it was near Turkey and also because progress “lies in political solutions.”

“We spend a lot of time trying to get Afghanistan right, but I think it is important for people to know that there is still a lot of work to do here,” Obama said.

Obama’s visit came at the conclusion of a long overseas trip that included economic and NATO summits in Europe and two days in Turkey.

Shortly before leaving Turkey, the president held out Iraq as an example of the change he seeks in policies inherited from former President George W. Bush.

“Moving the ship of state takes time,” he told a group of students in Istanbul. He noted his long-standing opposition to the war, yet said, “Now that we’re there,” the U.S. troop withdrawal has to be done “in a careful enough way that we don’t see a collapse into violence.”

In office only 11 weeks, Obama has already announced plans to withdraw most U.S. combat troops on a 19-month timetable. The drawdown is to begin slowly, so American forces can provide security for Iraqi elections, then accelerate in 2010. As many as 50,000 troops are expected to remain in the country at the end of the 19 months to perform counterterrorism duties.

Tuesday’s trip was Obama’s third to Iraq, and his first since taking office. He met with U.S. commanders and troops last summer while seeking the presidency.

It was the last stop of an eight-day trip to Europe and Turkey during which Obama sought to place his stamp on U.S. foreign policy after eight years of the Bush administration.

He and other world leaders pledged cooperation to combat a global recession, and he appealed with limited success for additional assistance in Afghanistan, a war he has vowed to intensify. The new president drew large crowds as he offered repeated assurances that the United States would not seek to dictate to other countries.

“I am personally committed to a new chapter of American engagement. We can’t afford to talk past one another, to focus only on our differences, or to let the walls of mistrust go up around us.” Obama said before leaving Turkey. The visit to a nation that straddles Europe and Asia was designed to signal a new era. He had pledged as a candidate to visit a majority-Muslim nation in his first 100 days in office.

Bush paid several trips to Iraq while in office, and on his last, in December, he was forced to duck shoes hurled in his direction at a news conference by an Iraqi journalist. By coincidence, the Iraqi Supreme Court reduced the prison sentence Tuesday for the man, Muntadhar al-Zeidi, now sentenced to one year in jail rather than three.

While U.S. casualties are down sharply from the war’s height, there were constant reminders of violence in Iraq. A half-dozen bombs rocked Shiite neighborhoods on Monday, killing 37 people. At least nine people died in the car bombing that occurred a few hours before the president arrived on Tuesday.

The military is in the process of thinning out its presence ahead of a June 30 deadline, under a U.S.-Iraq agreement negotiated last year that requires all American combat troops to leave Iraq’s cities. As that process moves forward, the increase in bombings and other incidents is creating concern that extremists may be regrouping.

Little more than a week ago, the president announced a revamped Afghanistan strategy that calls for adding 21,000 troops, narrowing the focus from nation-building to stamping out the Taliban and al-Qaida and broadening the mission to include pressure on Pakistan to root out terrorist camps in its lawless regions.

Afghanistan was a big topic of conversation with fellow world leaders on the earlier portion of Obama’s trip, particularly the part that took him to a NATO summit in Strasbourg, France.

Obama’s opposition to the Iraq war helped him enormously in his campaign for the presidency. It helped him defeat former rival now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Iowa caucuses that were the first test of the race, and aided his campaign against Republican Sen. John McCain last fall.

The end-the-war plan Obama announced in February was aimed at fulfilling his campaign promise to end combat in Iraq within 16 months of taking office. Contrary to hopes among some Democrats and grass-roots supporters, the plan calls for a 19-month timetable instead.