Long Island News

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Potential 2012 presidential candidate Sarah Palin will headline the Iowa Republican Party’s biggest annual fundraiser, party officials announced Tuesday in the state that launches the presidential nominating process. The Sept. 17 speech at the annual Reagan Dinner in Des Moines will be the first Iowa appearance by the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate since a brief book-signing stop last December

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Congressional leaders who opposed the troop surge in Iraq are now taking credit for it, and President Barack Obama is more worried about ending the war than winning it, House Republican leader John Boehner said Tuesday. Boehner made his remarks at the American Legion’s national convention in Milwaukee hours before Obama was scheduled to deliver an Oval Office speech marking the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional opponents, stubborn diplomats or wary heads of state, beware: The new Oval Office sofas look so comfy, you just might be lulled into a few reckless compromises. Every president eventually puts his own mark on the Oval Office, decoratively speaking, and the White House unveiled the Obama makeover on Tuesday, just hours before a major presidential speech on Iraq from his famous Resolute Desk (still there.) Design experts were weighing in immediately, of course, on the calming melange of browns and tans, with a generous helping of leather and an assortment of stripes: Was it all a little too No-Drama Obama?