Summary: In an an email sent to millions of supporters, President Barack Obama launched his bid for re-election in 2012. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 4, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that three car bombs shook central Baghdad in quick succession on Easter Sunday, killing at least 35 people.

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Summary: President Barack Obama has recalled his former campaign manager, David Plouffe, and is reconstituting the team that helped him win the White House in 2008 to counter Republican challenges in the 2010 midterm elections and recalibrate after political setbacks that have narrowed his legislative ambitions. … The political psychology of Barack Obama: Obama’s personality profile; Obama’s leadership style; Obama’s decision-making style. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 24, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported on the Iraqi provincial elections and the power struggle among competing Shiite factions in Iraq.

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Summary: For President Barack Obama, the economic cost of his Afghanistan surge plan proved troubling, after he received a private budget memo estimating that an expanded U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan would cost $1 trillion over 10 years, roughly the same as his health care reform plan. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 7, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that from Basra in the south to Irbil in the north, Iraqi activists are trying to counter the rising influence of religious fundamentalists and tribal chieftains who have insisted that women wear the veil, prevented girls from receiving education, and sanctioned killings of women accused of besmirching their family’s honor.

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Summary: Analysis of President Barack Obama’s political personality, leadership style, and decision-making on Afghanistan. … The Taliban’s reclusive leader, Mullah Omar, has ruled out talks with President Hamid Karzai and called on Afghans to break off relations with the “stooge” Kabul administration and continue the jihad, implying there will be no negotiations while foreign troops are in the country. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on November 25, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that KBR, a contractor providing services to the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, had committed serious violations of its contract, mainly by conducting inadequate inspections of electrical wiring and grounding at American bases. The Pentagon findings stemmed from the death of Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a highly decorated 24-year-old Green Beret from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who was electrocuted on January 2, 2008 while taking a shower at his base in Baghdad.

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