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Democrats think President Biden had a great August and they’re hoping it will translate into momentum for the fall — both legislatively and electorally. Congress returns next week after a monthlong recess and Labor Day is considered the unofficial kick-off of the general election campaign season

President Donald Trump spent his third year in office under siege from Democrats who by the end of the year moved to impeach the president, but there were moments when he had key victories and his supporters felt particularly vindicated about their decision to vote for him. Those moments were “MAGA moments,” when it was clear that Trump was keeping his campaign promise to Make America Great Again. 15. President Trump declares a National Emergency on the Border.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama sought on Saturday to cast himself as a strong leader on foreign policy, highlighting a U.S. pullout from Iraq and the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as success stories. In a message Obama is likely to push in his 2012 re-election campaign, he said his leadership had made it possible to turn the page on a decade of war and refocus on bolstering the U.S. economy and paying down the national debt. Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address that Gaddafi's death and the announcement that all U.S. troops would be...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama wants to cast some light on economic success stories in the shadows of a slow recovery. And he is looking to find some more. On Friday, the president travels to Schenectady, N.Y., birthplace of the General Electric Co., to showcase a new GE deal with India and announce a restructured presidential advisory board to focus on increasing employment and competitiveness. Obama is naming GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt as the head of a Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The panel replaces Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which had been chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul...

BISBEE — Traveling around Cochise County for three meet-and-greets, Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords spoke about what she sees as successes during her two terms. Not facing any primary opposition, Giffords has the luxury to tailor her events for use as building blocks for the November general election. She will face competition from one of the five Republicans running in the primary and a Libertarian, who has no primary foe. She started her Saturday county tour in Benson, went to Sierra Vista and then to Bisbee, before going to Douglas for a private event. In Bisbee, nearly 40 people listened...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2008 – Recruiting successes in fiscal 2008 continued into the first month of the new fiscal year, with all active and reserve components meeting or exceeding their October goals, defense officials reported today. Recruiting remained solid across the board, with the Army leading the effort by exceeding its active-duty goal by 1 percent, its Army National Guard goal by 16 percent and its Army Reserve goal by 10 percent, officials said. The Army signed on 5,324 active-duty soldiers in October, as well as 6,487 National Guardsmen and 3,049 reservists. The Marine Corps topped its October active-duty...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2008 – All four services met or exceeded their active-duty recruiting goals for January, defense officials announced today. The January recruiting numbers represented the eighth consecutive month of across-the-board active-duty recruiting successes among the services, officials said. The Army recruited 8,693 active-duty soldiers, 101 percent of its goal, in January. This came as welcome news to Army officials, who had feared that the delayed passage of the fiscal 2008 National Defense Authorization Act could hurt positive recruiting momentum. The legislation, which passed into law Jan. 28, includes authorities for a variety of special and incentive pays, including...

BAQUBAH — A joint press conference with a Coalition and Iraqi Army (IA) officer was held recently at Forward Operating Base Warhorse, to discuss the success of Iraqi security forces (ISF) in Diyala province. Lt. Col. Marshall Dougherty, commander of 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division from Fort Lewis, Wash., and Gen. Rasheed Abed al-Kareem Abed al-Qader, executive officer of the 5th Iraqi Army Division, started with comments on the reopening of a key road linking Baqubah with Baghdad. The road had been closed for 16 months due to be it being heavily...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2008 – President Bush used his final State of the Union address tonight to praise strides made in Iraq over the past year and to urge Congress to ensure U.S. troops have the resources and support they need to build on that success. With Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and several invited Iraq war veterans looking on, Bush told a joint session of Congress the new strategy in Iraq that became fully operational in mid-June “has achieved results few of us could have imagined just one year ago.” “When we met...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2008 – The Afghan army air corps is going through rapid growth, but it will take eight years for the force to be self-sustaining and independent, the commander of the Combined Air Power Transition Force said from his headquarters in the Afghan capital of Kabul today. Air Force Brig. Gen. Jay H. Lindell told Pentagon reporters via video-teleconference that the air corps has doubled its capability since October and that he expects it to double again in the next six months. His 133 U.S. servicemembers are helping the Afghan National Army establish the air corps. Ultimately, the...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2008 – President Bush’s new strategy for Iraq, announced one year ago today during a televised speech to the nation, is accomplishing many of its goals and laying important groundwork for initiatives yet to be fulfilled, military and defense officials agree. Bush unveiled the strategy amid growing sectarian violence that he acknowledged had overwhelmed Iraqis’ political gains and created an “unacceptable” situation in Iraq. The plan called for more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops on the ground in Baghdad and Anbar province, increased responsibility for the Iraqi government and Iraqi security forces, and more diplomatic and...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2007 – In partnership with Iraqi forces and concerned local citizens, coalition forces in Baghdad have made significant progress against al Qaeda and have helped foster reconciliation, the commander of U.S. forces in the Iraqi capital said today. “We came with a purpose: to improve the security situation here in the Iraqi capital and to set the stage for the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people to take charge of their future,” Army Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil, commander of Multinational Division Baghdad and 1st Armored Division, told reporters at the Pentagon via satellite as his unit...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2007 – Iraqis are taking solid steps toward self-sufficiency in Fallujah, Iraq, the leader of a provincial reconstruction team embedded with U.S. troops there said today. “(Iraqis) are very entrepreneurial; they are very creative,” Stephen Fakan told online journalists and “bloggers” during a conference call from Iraq. “If you give them a problem and you turn them loose on it, they can turn up with some very creative solutions.” Fakan and his 14-member team were deployed to Anbar province in April to help leaders in the region develop a framework within which they can eventually thrive without...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26, 2007 – Any transition of security responsibility from coalition forces to Iraqi security forces must be done deliberately and in a way that ensures the successes gained so far will not be lost, one of the top U.S. commanders in Iraq said today. Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that commanders on the ground know the U.S. troop surge is temporary, and will have a plan in place when the time comes to transition to Iraqi forces and reduce the number of U.S. troops in the country. “The Iraqi...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8, 2007 – Coalition and Iraqi security forces captured or killed 18 senior al Qaeda members in July, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman said today. Of the 18, six were terrorist unit commanders known as “senior emirs,” and seven were either foreign fighters or weapons distributors. Troops detained or killed three cell leaders and two members who manned an al Qaeda media operation, Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner told online journalists and “bloggers” during a conference call. “There has been some tactical momentum achieved in July and into the first week now of August,” he said. “And...

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2007 – Coalition and Iraqi forces have killed or captured hundreds of al Qaeda members in Iraq over the past two months, including 26 of the terror network’s “high-value” leaders and a would-be bomber, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman said. Speaking with reporters in Baghdad this morning and during a conference call with bloggers later today, Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said combined forces also have shut down an important terrorist information artery, and he described the cumulative results of these operations. Bergner said successes are occurring in spite of ongoing resistance from al Qaeda, proxy groups...

WASHINGTON - For months, Hillary Rodham Clinton has been running her presidential campaign as a front-runner, establishing an image of steady inevitability. Barack Obama unsteadied her. By raising a dazzling $32.5 million and outpacing Clinton by $10 million in primary election money, Obama succeeded in making his chief rival look mortal. Clinton still leads in national polls and is strong in early primary states like New Hampshire and Florida. Obama now leads in fundraising and number of donors — an impressive 258,000 during the first six months of the year. Neither ensures success in the voting booth. But both Democrats...

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2007 – Military officials in Iraq have detailed numerous operations in which Iraqi and coalition forces killed or capture al Qaeda operatives and other suspected terrorists and uncovered illegal weapons caches in Iraq. Among recent operations: -- In Mosul today, coalition forces killed a known terrorist leader. Khalid Sultan Khulayf Shakir al-Badrani, also known as Abu Abdullah, was the al Qaeda in Iraq emir of western Mosul. He had a direct hand in numerous terrorist activities in the area, including kidnappings, suicide bombings and attacks on coalition forces, officials reported. In 2005, he facilitated the movement of...

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2007 – A major clearing operation that wrapped up last week in Baghdad succeeded in preventing 3,200 roadside bombs, jailing 42 terrorists, and seizing enough weapons and explosives to outfit an enemy infantry battalion, the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team reported today. Army Col. Steven Townsend described sweeping success in Operation Arrowhead Strike 9, which kicked off March 20 to clear west-central Baghdad’s Mansour security district. The unit’s ninth brigade-level operation since arriving in Baghdad in December “significantly reduced insurgent activity” in the region in support of the Task Force...

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2007 – The success of combat outposts and joint security stations within the Baghdad area have been so successful that there is talk of increasing the number of combined Iraqi and coalition force stations, according to U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell IV, Multinational Force Iraq spokesman. Fifty-four of the 75 outposts and stations are operating in the capital, and the number could rise to 102, Caldwell said today during a combined press briefing in Baghdad with Iraqi Army Brig. Gen Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad Security Plan. “Together we are making progress but it’s...