WASHINGTON - What did you do on election night? 

The youth and enthusiasm of President-elect Barack Obama’s supporters in the wake of his historic election could lead to a baby boom if the feelings last.

Hope and euphoria “are a serious aphrodisiac,” Newsweek magazine says in its Nov. 24 issue, citing interviews with experts, supporters and, admittedly, anecdotal evidence.

An Obama baby boom would hardly be the first tied to a big news event. Upward blips in the birth rate have followed many events, both happy and sad, such as the September 11 attacks or the end of World War Two.

The online Urban Dictionary has added the entry “Obama Baby” — “A child conceived after Obama was proclaimed President by way of celebratory sex, or any baby born under Barack Obama’s term(s).”

The key, says Florida State University demographer Woody Carlson, is whether or not this catches on.

“If it’s just a moment of excitement and then everybody goes back to being depressed, then we may see a tiny birth spike. But if it continues, then the birth rate next August (nine months from now) could be the start of something big.”

Photo credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson ( Obama supporters cheer and embrace in Times Square, New York on Nov. 4)

Will Israel and India -- the first the United States' closest ally and the second fast becoming one of the closest -- emerge as the trickiest adversaries in any attempt by the United States to seek a regional solution to Afghanistan?

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama plans to explore a more regional strategy to the war in Afghanistan — including possible talks with Iran.

The idea has been fashionable among foreign policy analysts for a while, as I have discussed in previous posts here and here. The aim would be to capitalise on Shi'ite Iran's traditional hostility to the hardline brand of Sunni Islam espoused by the Taliban and al Qaeda to seek its help in neighbouring Afghanistan. At the same time India would be encouraged to make peace with Pakistan over Kashmir to end a cause of tension that has underpinned the rise of Islamist militancy in Pakistan and left both countries vying for influence in Afghanistan.

But Israel has already cautioned Obama against talking to Iran, which it said would be a seen as a sign of weakness in efforts to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear programme. And Obama's suggestion that the United States should try to help resolve the Kashmir dispute has raised hackles in India, which resents any outside interference in what it sees as a bilateral dispute. That could make the two countries important allies in combating -- or at least reshaping -- any attempt to remould U.S. strategy. 

India and Israel have already built close defence ties, as underlined by this Times of India article.  And according to this Asia Times article by former Indian diplomat M K Bhadrakumar, India's growing relationship with Israel, combined with U.S. pressure, is pushing Delhi to break off what was once a strategic partnership with Tehran. "At the root of it lies unprecedented US-Israeli interference in India's Iran policy," he writes.

Are we going to see more signs of Israel and India working together -- if necessary to resist rather than support U.S. policy? And in an increasingly multi-polar world, will Obama discover that he needs to watch the United States' friends as closely as its enemies to drive through his plans for change?

WASHINGTON - The G20 leaders found themselves in a predicament faced by many a family when trying to assemble everyone in one place at one time for a snapshot. Someone inevitably spoils the first take.

The leaders of the advanced and developing countries gathered in Washington on Saturday to talk about the global financial crisis started the day with a group photo.

They filed in to the National Building Museum and lined up smiling for the cameras to capture their bonding.

Then it was time to leave and head into the first meeting to discuss the world’s worst financial meltdown in decades and search for solutions.

But as they stepped off the stage confusion reigned, and they all turned back for another shot.

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez had arrived late and missed the first photo.

So they all smiled politely once again, now the group was complete, for a quick second take.

An apologetic Fernandez turned to her neighbors and said “gracias.”

Photo credit: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hailed Barack Obama on Friday for an election victory he said inspired the Southeast Asian nation where the president-elect spent four years as a youth.

“He spoke our language, knew our culture, ate our food, played with Indonesian friends from various ethnic backgrounds and through all this he experienced the inner soul of Indonesia,” Yudhoyono said in a speech in Washington.

 Students at Besuki Elementary School, Obama’s old school in Jakarta, danced euphorically while teachers wept at news of his election victory, said the Indonesian president.
Yudhoyono told his U.S.-Indonesia Society audience he came to Washington carrying an album of old photos of Obama and his assembled by childhood friends to give to the president-elect.

“There is no better story, no better example, of the virtue of people-to-people connections than the powerful impact of Barack Obama’s election to today’s Indonesians,” he said.

REUTERS/Stringer (Indonesian students dispaly pictures of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama)

As world leaders begin arriving in Washington for this weekend’s global financial summit, the U.S. capital is abuzz with talk that President-elect Barack Obama may choose former rival Hillary Clinton to be his new secretary of state.

But morning television shows asked whether Obama could really be considering a woman who once called him naive in matters of foreign policy and whom he accused of inflating her foreign policy credentials.

ABC’s Good Morning America show quoted a source close to Obama as saying Clinton’s candidacy was “under very serious consideration” and that her “international stature” made her a strong contender. CNN said her appointment would help to “heal the wounds of a bruising primary battle”.

CBS reported that “people close to her” said she had not yet been approached, although Clinton did fly to Chicago on Thursday for what her office described as personal business.

The financial crisis is likely to remain sharply in focus on Friday. The Commerce Department issues retail figures for October, and economists surveyed by Reuters are expecting the figures to show that sales fell 2.0 percent after a 1.2 percent decline in September.

The latest Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, which measures U.S. consumer confidence, is also due to be published. The last survey showed consumer confidence suffering its steepest monthly drop on record in October

Christopher Dodd, the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, appeared on several morning TV shows to lambaste the Bush administration for what he called its failure to address the root cause of the financial crisis — the flood of mortgage foreclosures, which he said numbered 9,128 per day.

Bush is hosting a summit of world leaders in Washington on Saturday, the first in a series, on the worst global economic crisis in 80 years. He will host a dinner for the leaders at the White House on Friday night.

“There is a pressing need for leaders to agree on basic steps to jump-start the sagging world economy, including fiscal stimulus and financial help for developing countries, which are being pummeled as multinational banks and investors cut credit lines and dump assets,” the New York Times said in an editorial.

U.S. stock futures were down on Friday, indicating the stock market will surrender some of the hefty gains it made in Thursday’s session.

ABC, meanwhile, secured the first interview with William Ayers, a founder of a radical left anti-Vietnam War group who Republican presidential candidate John McCain tried unsuccessfully to tie to Obama during the election campaign.

Ayers, who hosted a meeting at his house in 1995 to introduce Obama to neighbors during Obama’s first run for the Illinois Senate, dismissed suggestions that the two were close.

“I know Barack Obama. I know him as well as thousands of other Chicagoans,” he said.

REUTERS/Jim Young (Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama at Florida rally); REUTERS/Jim Young (President George W. Bush at New York’s JFK Airport)

CHICAGO- Call it the e-fireside chat.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama plans to continue his close links with the Internet by making the weekly radio address into a YouTube video that he will post on his Web site www.change.gov, aides said on Friday.

Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, will record this Saturday’s Democratic weekly radio address as his first video and audio address. He will continue the tradition during his presidency.

“No president-elect or president has ever turned the radio address into a multimedia opportunity before,” said transition spokesman Nick Shapiro.

“This is just one of the many ways that President-elect Obama will communicate directly with the American people and make the White House and the political process more transparent.”

Obama, the first president-elect with a MySpace and Facebook profile, used the Internet to his advantage during the long two-year presidential campaign, breaking all records in part by his highly successful effort to raise money online.

Shapiro said in addition to regularly videotaping the radio address, the Obama White House will also conduct regular question and answer chats online as well as video interviews.

Transition office officials said the goal was to put a face on the new administration and its members.

One of the first videos that will be put up on the Webster is of Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s close advisers and a co-chair of the transition effort.

REUTERS/Jason Reed (Obama speaks with campaign worker in Reno, Nevada)

CHICAGO - Anybody seen President-elect Barack Obama lately?

The press pool covering him sure hasn’t.

As he delves deeply into planning his transition to the White House, Obama has been keeping a low-profile in Chicago, after his high-profile visit to the White House on Monday.

He was seen publicly on Tuesday when he laid a Veteran’s Day wreath with disabled Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth.

But that’s been about it. On Thursday morning, Obama dropped his two daughters off at their school in the morning. They hopped out of the vehicle, but Obama did not.

He went to his fitness center for a workout. Photographers sprinted to try to get his picture as he walked into the place, to little avail. 

What about his arrival at his transition office? Nope, the motorcade took him to an underground garage.

It has been like that all week. On Tuesday, to avoid attracting a crowd at his barber shop, the barber was brought to him and he got his hair cut at a friend’s apartment.

What to make of this? Nothing really, except that photographers are getting a workout running to get in place for a brief glimpse of him, and having nothing to show for it.

For more Reuters political stories, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama sign hands outside his transition office in Chicago)

WASHINGTON - It’s not a secret: the top two U.S. spies are offering to stay on for at least a while under president-elect Barack Obama.
 
What remains a mystery, however, is whether the offer by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell and CIA Director Michael Hayden, will be accepted, given their identification with controversial Bush administration policies on electronic spying and treatment of terrorism suspects.
 
The Washington Post reported this week that McConnell and Hayden expected to be replaced early in the Obama administration.
 
McConnell — who gave Obama his first full intelligence briefing last week — told an awards ceremony in Washington on Wednesday that U.S. spy agencies would be in good hands under “the new guys.”
 
“Universally, very-well informed people, very smart, very strategic,” is how he described Obama’s team. “All the signs, at the moment, are positive,” he said.
 
Then came the pitch: “The message that both General Hayden and I have delivered to the incoming administration is, we view ourselves as professionals — as apolitical professionals — and we are available to serve at the pleasure of the president,” McConnell said.
 
“If they ask us to stay for some reason, for a period of time, we would stay and assist them in the transition,” he said.
 
“If they choose others, that’s fine, we’re happy with that; we have other things to do,” he said.
 
McConnell’s position as the U.S. spy chief is new, created under a post-Sept. 11 intelligence reorganization, and like other political jobs has no fixed term. There is, however, some precedent for CIA directors to serve overlapping administrations. George Tenet, a Bill Clinton appointee, remained in office under President George W. Bush until 2004.
 
Hayden has said little about his plans, but also noted in a letter to employees last week that he serves at the pleasure of the president.
 
The Post said influential congressional Democrats opposed McConnell and Hayden’s staying on because they publicly backed Bush policies on interrogation and electronic surveillance.
 
It said, however, other Democrats and many intelligence experts gave high marks to the intelligence leaders for restoring stability and professionalism, and that the Obama camp had given no signs of its plans.
 
McConnell said the Post article had an “alarming headline” but delivered a “reasonable message.”

For more Reuters political stories, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (McConnell, left, and Hayden at a Senate panel hearing Feb. 5)

President George W. Bush is in New York Thursday, discussing financial markets and the world economy ahead of this weekend’s G20 summit on managing the global economic crisis. Bush also speaks at an interfaith debate at the United Nations and meets with Saudi King Abdullah.

 
Vice President Dick Cheney will host Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife at the Naval Observatory Thursday evening. They will have a private meeting and then tour the vice president’s official residence.
 
Biden famously called Cheney “the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history” during his debate with Republican rival Sarah Palin.
 
A Cheney spokeswoman said the vice president took the insults with a grain of salt, ABC’s “Good Morning America” reported.
 
“The vice president has been in politics for nearly 40 years. Campaign rhetoric is not new to him. He looks forward to having the Bidens visit the Naval Observatory and give them a tour of the residence,” she said.
 
Palin, seemingly press-shy during her run for the vice presidency, continued a spate of post-election interviews. She told CNN she wasn’t ruling out a run for the presidency in 2012.
 
“My life is in God’s hands. If he’s got doors open for me that I believe are in our state’s best interest, the nation’s best interests, i’m going to go through those doors,” she said.
 
Morning television shows focused on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s change of direction for the government’s financial bailout plan.
 
Paulson announced Wednesday that he was abandoning his original plan to buy troubled mortgage assets from financial institutions. Instead, he will focus on flooding institutions with cash in order to ease consumer lending.
 
The mortgage crisis continues to hit homeowners, networks noted, citing a report out Thursday showing home foreclosures in October were up 25 percent over the previous year.
 
If you want a job in the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, you’d better be prepared to tell all, The New York Times reported.
 
The job application includes a seven-page questionnaire that may be the most intrusive ever, seeking personal and professional records, information about the candidates’ grown children and links to Facebook pages and blog posts.
 
Obama wants to know if any of his high level appointees own guns, have sent emails that might embarrass the president-elect or have paid traffic fines over $50.
 
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Tzipi Livni told CBS’s “Early Show” she was confident Obama would maintain close ties with Israel. A day after Iran announced it had test-fired a new generation of missiles that could reach Israel, she noted that Obama had said “clearly that nobody can afford Iran with a nuclear weapon.”

Stock futures were down, pointing to a lower opening on Wall Street after Wednesday’s 400-point slide.
 
For more Reuters political news, click here.

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Bush and Cheney at White House on Nov. 6)

WASHINGTON - In yet another television interview, former Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin revealed on Wednesday that while she was focused on her job as Alaska’s governor she was open to the idea of a Senate bid.

While at first saying it was “not necessarily” the kind of post she would like some day, she was open to the idea.

“I’m not going to close any doors that perhaps would be in front of me and would allow me to put to good use executive experience and a world view that I think is good for our nation,” she said in an interview with CNN’s “Larry King Live.” “I’m not going to close any door there in terms of opportunity that may be there in the future.”

Just a day ago, in an interview on NBC the 44-year-old first-term governor said she wasn’t planning on seeking a Senate seat. “I’m not planning on it because I think the people of Alaska will best be served with me as their governor,” Palin said.

In the CNN interview, Palin said she did not believe she cost presidential hopeful John McCain any votes because of her performance or other incidents along the campaign trail, but if that was the case she was sorry about it.

“If I hurt the ticket at all, and cost John McCain even one vote, I am sorry about it because John McCain is a true American hero,” she said.

Palin has blanketed the television airwaves since she and McCain lost last week, and is planning to talk again with reporters at the Republican Governors Association annual conference in Miami on Thursday.

Click here for more Reuters political coverage.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Blake (Palin and McCain on election night.)