WASHINGTON-- At first, the ad seems an Obama 2012 tout---down to the "yes we can" chant--but the spot, with some wicked visual humor--turns on President Obama; it is a mocking production of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

WASHINGTON--First Lady Michelle Obama is going to step up her support for military families, launching a national drive on April 12--along the lines of her "Let's Move" anti-obesity campaign--to highlight her new initiative.

Mrs. Obama is partnering with Dr. Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Biden; the two women have been headlining military family events since the beginning of the Obama administration. While assisting military families has long been in Mrs. Obama's portfolio, her speeches and events related to obesity have overshadowed her military work--being done at a time the nations has been in two wars--and now has a third, in Libya.

The anticipated high visibility roll-out, long in the planning, has been delayed a month. "We've got military families. We've been laying the foundation for that. You're going to be watching a pretty big initiative in March," Mrs. Obama told her beat reporters on Feb. 8.

In a statement, the White House said Mrs. Obama's "initiative aims to educate, challenge, and spark action from all sectors of our society -- citizens, communities, businesses, non-profits, faith based institutions, philanthropic organizations, and government -- to ensure military families have the support they have earned.

"In the days following the launch, Mrs. Obama and Dr. Biden will travel across the country to highlight the courage and strength of our military families, and the ability of our veterans and military spouses to strengthen our communities. They will also meet with men and women who are taking action, and lending a hand to those that have served our Nation."

As part of the overall push out of Mrs. Obama's enhanced military activities, Mrs. Obama will visit West Point on May 20 to address the 2011 graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy.

On June 3, Mrs. Obama delivers the commencement speech to graduates of Quantico Middle High School, located on the Marine Corps Base at Quantico and serving military children.

Follow Lynn Sweet on Twitter: @lynnsweet

WASHINGTON -- President Obama will register with the Federal Election Commission as a 2012 re-election candidate as early as Monday, I've learned, clearing the way for what may be the biggest campaign fund-raising drive in the nation's history -- not counting Obama-allied independent fund-raising in the works.

Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan told me Thursday, "No decision has been made," but I've heard from a campaign insider that the papers will be quietly filed in a few days, with more of a kickoff -- via an Obama video and-or text message -- to come later.

The FEC registration means the Obama team may start collecting contributions for the Obama 2012 Victory fund, which is being established.

Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina has been previewing strategies with megadonors in Washington at DNC meetings last month and last Monday night in Chicago, when he headlined an event for Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) donors. The Obama 2012 national headquarters will be in Chicago's Prudential Building.

Messina has been telling the elite donor ranks Obama will have to raise "north of $750 million," a reference to the amount raised for 2008 -- and the $1 billion the Obama money machine may need for 2012.

Messina has been saying he is worried that outside GOP allied groups -- especially ones that GOP strategist Karl Rove advises -- will be running ads early on.

Earlier in March, a Rove-advised group, Crossroads GPS, spent $750,000 in one-week for an anti-union national cable buy slamming Obama. These early spots will be Obama hits masquerading as "issue" ads, trying to soften up Obama while the many GOP presidential contenders fight it out in their primaries.

Because of the outside money threat, the Obama team, which discouraged independent spending for Obama in 2008, is open to it in 2012. Two trusted former White House staffers are exploring creation of such a group to counter Rove: Sean Sweeney, who was chief of staff for Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel when he was Obama's chief of staff, and former deputy press secretary Bill Burton.

As I've reported, Obama will be in Chicago on April 14 for fund-raising launch events; he will hit Los Angeles and San Francisco on April 20-21 and New York at the end of the month. In Chicago, Obama will be joined by other VIPs from his team; there will be lower-dollar events for the DNC's "Gen44" group and a $35,800-a-person dinner, with proceeds shared with the DNC. DNC Finance Chair Rufus Gifford -- to be the Obama 2012 finance chief -- was to hold a "host committee" call on Thursday for the Chicago ramp-up.

WASHINGTON--President Obama will register as a 2012 re-election candidate as early as next week, I've learned, with the Federal Election Commission filing possibly coming as early as Monday.

Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan told me, "no decision has been made." But I've heard from a campaign insider that the papers will be quietly filed in a few days with more of a kick off--via an Obama video and or text message--- to come later.

As I've reported, Obama will be in Chicago on April 14 for the fund-raising launch events to fund his bid for a second term, with events in Los Angeles and San Francisco on April 19 and 20. Obama will be in New York at the end of the month. The FEC registration clears the way for the Obama team to start collecting contributions for the Obama 2012 Victory fund which is being established.

My March 30 column with scoops on Obama 2012 fund-raising and other re-election campaign details is here.

My March 28 column with my scoop about the Obama 2012 national headquarters in Chicago's Prudential Building is here.

Follow Lynn Sweet on Twitter: @lynnsweet

WASHINGTON--While President Obama's ratings have taken a dip lately, a new poll released Thursday by Harvard University's Institute of Politics finds Obama is improving his standing among the nation's youth. Recapturing the youth movement is a priority of the Obama 2012 campaign; the Obama White House this week stepped up its outreach to youths. Another reveal from the IOP survey: Some 90 percent of college students are on Facebook; that will be a factor in 2012 political communication. It's not just e-mail anymore.

From the IOP: "A new national poll of America's 18 to 29 year olds by
Harvard's Institute of Politics (IOP), located at the John F. Kennedy School of
Government, now finds a majority of Millennials (55%) approve of the job
performance of President Barack Obama, a rise of six percentage points from IOP
polling conducted last October. The President's job approval rating among
students on four-year college campuses - now 60% - increased even more (nine
percentage points) over the same period."

WASHINGTON--The defection of a key Gaddafi aide--Foreign Minister Moussa Kusa--seen as a mastermind behind the Pan Am 103 bombing--is a "significant blow," to Gaddafi, the Obama White House said Thursday morning.

From Tommy Vietor, National Security Council Spokesman: "This is a major defection and a significant blow to the Gaddafi regime. Moussa Kusa is one of Gaddafi's most trusted aides who can help provide critical intelligence about Gaddafi's current state of mind and military plans. It also demonstrates that the people around Gaddafi understand his regime is in disarray. As the President said the other night, 'it should be clear to those around Gaddafi, and to every Libyan, that history is not on his side.' The people around Gaddafi have to choose whether to place their bet on a regime that has lost all legitimacy and face grave consequences, or get on the right side of history. Moussa Kusa's decision shows which way the wind is blowing in Tripoli."

=

WASHINGTON---Freshman Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) scolded President Obama while discussing the possibility of an April 8 government shutdown with Fox's Greta Van Susteren on her "On the Record" show Wednesday night.

"I've been very clear, Greta, that the president of the United States should be ashamed of himself because he isn't even participating in the seriousness of these talks," Walsh said.

Walsh was apparently unaware that Vice President Biden on Wednesday night was at the U.S. Capitol trying to broker a deal and that White House chief of staff Bill Daley has also been deeply involved in trying to avoid a shutdown. Biden on Wednesday night reported "progress" but warned, "it's not a deal until it's a whole deal."

Walsh--who beat former Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) by only 291 votes last November in the far north suburban Chicago district, fueled by Tea Party activists--criticized Biden for not being involved in the negotiations-- on the very day he was.

Said Walsh on Wednesday, "Vice president Biden said he would be involved. The next day he flew out of the country. I've been saying for a few weeks that the Democrats' only card is to shut down the government. They've lost the substance of this argument. All they want to do is make the Republicans look like the bad guys."

Walsh's dated reference: After Obama made Biden the point man on the budget, earlier in March Biden traveled to Russia, Finland and Moldova for a week.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday night, Biden talked to reporters at the Capitol "I think we're making good progress. We're all working off the same number now, $73 billion.... The appropriations committees met today. Obviously, there's a difference in the composition of that number -- what's included, what's not included. It's going to be a thorough negotiation. We're getting back -- we got to roll up our sleeves. They're going back, meeting tomorrow morning at what, 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. -- whatever it is tomorrow morning."

WASHINGTON--Donald Trump, mulling a GOP presidential run, actually said there was a "good chance" President Obama was not born in the U.S.A. during an interview with Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie on their MSNBC show Thursday morning, which makes Trump either part of the birther fringe or a free-wheeling promoter of NBC's the "Celebrity Apprentice."

"We all agree he was born," Trump said. Trump's point: Team Obama never came up with papers from a Honolulu hospital documenting Obama's birth. The state of Hawaii did issue a certificate of Obama's birth, which the Obama 2008 presidential campaign released. The best evidence attesting to Obama's Hawaii birth: a birth announcement printed shortly after his Aug., 4, 1961, birth in the Honolulu Advertiser on Aug. 13, 1961.

Trump said he will decide on a president run prior to June.

FACTCHECK.ORG ON OBAMA'S BIRTH

WASHINGTON--The Obama administration is resisting calling the Libya attacks a war. President Obama did not use that word in his Monday address to the nation on Libya and at the Wednesday briefing, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney deflected a question about Libya from a reporter: "Is it a war?"

Replied Carney, "Look, it is a -- obviously, it's military action. Did we invade Libya? No. Are we -- do we have U.S. troops on the ground in Libya? No. You can call it -- it's been a false argument that some media outlets have tried to engage about the nomenclature here. It is the use of military force in concert with our allies. Military force is inherently a risky proposition, puts men and women in harm's way, and military -- but what it is not is in the context that we live in today, anything like a situation where you had I believe at one point 170,000-plus U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq; where you have 100,000 U.S. troops and 140,000 ISAF troops overall in Afghanistan in a prolonged engagement, a prolonged war. That is not what is happening in Libya.

"The President made very clear how this is not at all like that. You can call it what you want, but it's not analogous."

Whether from the air, sea or land, when U.S. soldiers are shooting at foreign targets--is it a war?

WASHINGTON--Caroline Kennedy's 2008 endorsement of then Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) came at a crucial time during the Democratic primary season, where Obama was battling then Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) On Tuesday night, Obama tapped Kennedy husband Edwin Schlossberg as a member of the Commission of Fine Arts.

And Obama appointed Chicagoan Deepa Gupta, as a member of the National Council on the Arts. Gupta is a Program Officer for Media, Culture and Special Initiatives at the Chicago based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

WASHINGTON--A new Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday concludes that President Obama's ratings have declined--and he may be in trouble with independents.

Over at pollwatchdaily.com, Bruce Drake takes a look at the Quinnipiac survey conducted March 22-28 --and puts it in the context of other Obama presidential polling.

Quinnipiac on Wednesday:
42 percent Obama approve
48 percent Obama disapprove
10 percent undecided

Click below for PDF of Quinnipiac U. poll

033011_NAT_PRES_+_BP.doc

WASHINGTON--White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, who is also Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, answers questions about women in the workplace at 5:05 p.m. est. Click here to watch it live.

WASHINGTON -- On Monday I revealed that the Obama 2012 campaign is kicking off with a series of fund-raisers starting in Chicago on April 14 and now I have more details: President Obama hits California on April 20 and 21 for fund-raisers in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The date Obama registers as a 2012 candidate with the Federal Election Commission is soon, I've heard, though "no decision has been made," said Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Hari Sevugan. Anyway, there is no real suspense. Everyone knows Obama is running for a second term. There are a few considerations for the final timing, especially if there is a government shutdown as a result of congressional budget battles, or if the Libya military action takes an unexpected turn for the worse.

Still, there will be some hoopla surrounding the "official" announcement, and in the planning stages are a string of "official" launch events, in a variety of apps, in the e-world and the real one. Marc Ambinder over at the Atlantic says the re-elect team wants to keep the announcement date a "secret" so they can first send out e-mails or text messages to supporters. Stringing out the announcement (sign up and be the first to know!) will help Obama 2012 organization build its lists.

The Obama team has fund-raising as a top priority. Obama's main war chest for a second term, I'm told, will be called the "Obama Victory Fund 2012. On Tuesday, Vice President Biden prospected in Washington with about 75 big wallet Democrats, while Obama raised $1.5 million at a fund-raiser in New York City for the Democratic National Committee, his main political operation until the re-elect is created.

The Chicago visit will likely consist of two events: a very high-dollar dinner and a lower-end reception. Remember: it was Chicago's elite donors who bankrolled Obama at the start of his 2008 presidential campaign.

The Chicago national Obama 2012 headquarters, I scooped Monday, will be in the Prudential Building. More details:

† The Obama 2012 ground game will start soon -- as early as May, a source told me, with re-elect staffers setting up shop first in battleground states. Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Wisconsin and others. The pro-labor protests triggered by GOP Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to strip public unions of their collective bargaining rights has already provided a test run for the DNC's Organizing for America arm, energizing the group that launched as Obama for America in 2008.

† The top Obama 2012 staffers will be in Chicago before the April 14 Obama event. Campaign manager Jim Messina is already in the city; with deputy managers Jennifer O'Malley Dillon and Julianna Smoot and fund raising chief Rufus Gifford and others soon to follow.

WASHINGTON--Budget battles have consequences and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) asked fellow Illinoisan, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, to lock in money for Illinois projects before House Republicans try to take it away under their FY 2011 budget plan, currently the subject of much debate in Congress. Durbin and LaHood, a Republican former House member from Peoria, have been touting the transportation infrastructure projects as a job plan.

Read Durbin's letter to LaHood at the click.

The Illinois projects at risk, per Durbin:

Illinois projects in jeopardy under the House Republican plan include:

· The Chicago to Quad Cities Amtrak route ( $230 million and 588 jobs per year for the first four years of design and construction);

· The Englewood Flyover CREATE project ($133 million and 1,450 Chicagoland jobs);

· The Wadsworth Bridge Replacement to improve the Chicago to Milwaukee Amtrak service ($3.71 million);

· The CTA's purchase of All-Electric Buses ($2.21 million);

· The Peoria Warehouse District Project ($10 million and combined with private investment 1,000 local jobs);

· The Moline Multimodal Facility ($10 million);

· The Barrington EJ&E Grade Separation at US 14 ($2.8 million); and

· A Hybrid Paratransit Bus for Grundy County ($144,000).

WASHINGTON--While President Obama is in New York City collecting $1.5 million for the Democratic National Committee at a fund-raiser Tuesday, Vice President Biden is prospecting here with about 75 big wallet Democrat donors.

The Biden event is at a private home here and the guest list was put together by the DNC and its grass-and net--roots arm, Organizing for America. The guests include Maryland Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown and former-mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly. This is not a fund-raiser where people pay to attend; rather Biden is prospecting to get people jazzed up about fund-raising for the Obama/Biden 2012 ticket.

This is all part of the 2012 money chase. On Monday, I revealed that the Obama 2012 launch is in April with a big fund-raising drive at the start: "I've also learned that when President Obama hits Chicago for a Democratic National Committee event April 14, it will be one of a series of gatherings around the country in April -- at Democrats' best donor cities -- kicking off the Obama 2012 campaign." In that same column, I also had the scoop that the Obama 2012 national headquarters will be in Chicago's Prudential Building.

In New York, Obama will raise $1.5 million from 50 people at a fund-raiser at Marcus Samuelsson's Red Rooster restaurant (with a $30,800 per-person ask). Obama will also appear before about 250 folks--activists, volunteers, lower dollar donors--at a no-charge "thank you reception" s at the Studio Museum of Harlem.

WASHINGTON--Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle meets with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) here on Wednesday, the day after Chicago mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel and Preckwinkle forged a compact to work together on common issues. It's an obvious joint venture but one that has never been pursued at the level Emanuel and Preckwinkle seem to be at. On Tuesday, the two announced creation of a study group to find ways to enhance city-county cooperation. Mayor Daley had somewhat of a hands off policy, since his brother, John Daley, is a Cook County Board Member--and chairman of its key Finance Committee.

Precwinkle's meeting with Durbin is to discuss Cook County priorities; after that, Durbin will meet with members of the Will County Board on some of their issues.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama, in defending military strikes in Libya, relied heavily on a humanitarian argument in his Monday night speech: faced with Moammar Gadhafi's threats to slaughter his own people, America had "responsibilities to our fellow human beings" to act. To do nothing, Obama told the nation, would "have been a betrayal of who we are."

What is important, said Obama, is that the U.S. is not a nation to "turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And, as president, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action."

Such is a definition, then, of an Obama Doctrine of how the nation acts under his presidency, even as U.S. soldiers are engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. And even as Congress -- some members on both sides of the aisle -- believe Obama merely notified them of his intentions to attack Libya -- not the consultation he claimed on Monday. Obama's team successfully lobbied the U.N. and NATO to pull together a strong international response; the administration felt no similar sense of urgency in explaining its actions to Congress.

I'm sure the 27-minute speech will not silence Obama critics, but it may apply some brakes as Congress returns this week to grapple with the costs, risks, and rationale for getting involved in Libya while not intervening in the opposition movements of other Middle East nations during this extraordinary history-in-the-making revolutionary period.

Simply put, Obama does not want a massacre to happen on his watch. President Clinton has regrets to this day not using U.S. force to stop genocidal murders in Rwanda in 1994 and, by extension, so does Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The world stood by, just as it did during the Nazi Holocaust.

As for taking action against Libya, Obama laid out the case that the U.S. involvement will be limited and that toppling Gaddafi -- regime change -- is not part of the military mission.

But it was a mission of necessity, of that Obama was certain. "We have intervened to stop a massacre." He's been long tutored on the topic. As a U.S. senator from Illinois, he met Samantha Power, who in 2003 won a Pulitzer Prize for her book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Impressed with each other, Power took leave from her human rights work at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government to join Obama's Illinois Senate office for parts of 2005 and 2006. In the Obama White House, Power is Senior Director and Special Assistant for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights.

WASHINGTON--Several of my colleagues asked at the Monday White House briefing why President Obama on Monday night is not delivering his prime time Libya speech from the Oval Office--as if speaking from the National Defense University here somehow devalued the importance of the speech. The Oval Office is not the premium venue it may once have been. Unless Obama was making the speech from Tripoli, the location does not matter that much.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough shrugged off attempts to read tea leaves about the location. Said Carney, "And I think there are different venues to do this. It's still -- it is the President speaking to the American people and -- at a time when we expect a lot of Americans will be home and able to watch."

The Obama White House--as all modern day presidential administrations--cares a lot about optics. That's why every Obama event is carefully staged. Obama will speak before an audience of military personnel and a large contingent from the city's diplomatic corps. The guest list makes sense: the Obama team wants to underscore that the Libya attacks are not a unilateral move and that the U.S. is part of an international coalition. The diplomats are expected to be representatives from other countries involved in the military action. You don't get that storyline possibility sitting in the Oval Office.

Most people viewing the Obama speech Monday night will see a tight shot of the president flanked by flags and a blue backdrop. I would expect the cameras to show some shots of the audience. Don't expect a lot of reaction: military audiences are known for sitting on their hands; it's part of their culture not to applaud and interrupt speeches from the commander-in-chief.

Anyway--Obama is always a better speaker when he has a large room and an audience; talking tele-prompter to camera has never been his strongest game.

Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough was asked during the briefing,"Why is this not in the Oval Office? Why is it at NDU?"

Said McDonough: "Well, I think it's very important to go down to NDU, which is a place where we have mid-career officers from each of the services who are currently serving or who have -- many of them just come back from tours overseas. But if you just line it up, Chip, about what our military is doing right now -- undertaking an enormous effort in Japan to support our Japanese allies in this moment of great trial; continuing the effort in Afghanistan to ensure that Afghanistan does not again become a safe haven for al Qaeda; winding down our effort in Iraq so as to ensure the hand-over at the end of this -- at the end of next year, so that we are in a position to shape the environment using our unique assets and capabilities in Libya so that we can hand off to our allies.

....So he wants to send a very clear signal to the folks there to that regard. But as it relates to whether it should be in the Oval or somewhere else, I think that that's probably better addressed to somebody else.

Another reporter asked McDonough again about why the speech was not in the Oval Office: Asked a reporter, "Well, what about the argument that has been widely reported, or at least commentated that he's doing it to downplay the importance of the Libya operation -- that's why he's not in the Oval Office?"

Said McDonough, "Well, you know, we've had meetings every day with the President, and the President is meeting every day either telephonically, in person -- including over the weekend -- with the Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Vice President, General Ham, Secretary of State and his National Security Advisor because of the importance he attaches to it. The fact is that he attaches great importance to it. And as I think each of you has heard him say, no issue weighs more heavily on him and he attaches no greater importance to any issue than the decision to send our men and women in uniform into conflict."

And yet another try, this time to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
Asked a reporter, "Why is the President not delivering this from the Oval Office? Why in an auditorium? Is it not -- and not primetime but at 7:30 p.m.? Is he trying to not make this speech comparable to other Presidents who have announced war efforts?"

Said Carney, "I think giving an address that's going to be covered by the -- we hope by all the major networks and cable channels is -- signifies how important we think this is. As Denis mentioned, the National Defense University is a very appropriate place to give a speech like this, given the tremendous engagement and sacrifice that our armed forces have been making around -- Libya being the case specific right now, but around the world in different areas; and one area that Denis mentioned that people tend to forget because it's not a traditional military operation, and that's the assistance provided to our allies in Japan.

"And I think there are different venues to do this. It's still -- it is the President speaking to the American people and -- at a time when we expect a lot of Americans will be home and able to watch."

(White House photo, taken March 24)

WASHINGTON--The White House 2011 Easter Egg Roll is April 25, the first mega event presided over by new Social Secretary Jeremy Bernard. The theme is keyed to First Lady Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign: "Get Up and Go!"

On Monday, the White House revealed the " official souvenir egg and logo for the 2011 Easter Egg Roll," pictured above.

"This year's egg comes in four pastel colors - purple, pink, green, yellow - and includes the stamped signatures of the President and First Lady," the White House said.