FishPoolDC: An Insider's Notes from Today's Press Briefing

For the Afghan Speech Bingo Card: While POTUS continued to work the phone tree of world leaders to outline (without specific numbers, the WH says) the new Af-Pak strategy to be unveiled tomorrow night at West Point, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs hit on several of the speech’s points in response to briefing questions from reporters. A laundry list: relationship with Pakistan, already made “stronger” through engagement and diplomacy; cost (!)–noting that this is not an “open-ended” commitment, though RG warned not to expect specific dollar numbers in tomorrow’s address; sacrifice of the troops, which will be mentioned “early” in the speech; stability and anti-corruption efforts (rather than a focus on “nation-building”); benchmarks, of which there will be “new wrinkles” from the March announcement; the al Qaeda threat that remains (“dismantle, disrupt, destroy”–and on some occasions the WH will use “defeat” as one of the...