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March 15, 2012 | | FIERY Here comes Joe Biden! The vice president was dispatched to the battleground state of Ohio today for a fiery campaign speech that simultaneously attacked the Republicans’ presidential field and propped up Obama. Electing Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney, the veep said, would “bankrupt the middle class once again ... They’re about protecting the privileged sector.” President Obama, meanwhile, has “steel in his spine” that salvaged the auto industry and saved one million jobs. The fiery speech was just one part of the Dems’ 2012 outreach today: the Obama campaign is also poised to release a 17-minute narrative on Obama’s first term. BACKLASH Hamid Karzai is fed up. The Afghanistan president made a dramatic request on Thursday, asking the U.S. to pull its troops out of villages and confine them to bases—a move that would effectively end combat operations for the 90,000 U.S. soldiers there. Karzai asked for the new tactic personally during a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is on a diplomatic swing through the country. Meanwhile, in a blow to a nascent peace process, the Afghan Taliban announced that they would be suspending their negotiations with the United States. The group cited Washington’s “alternating and ever-changing position.” It’s not clear whether the pullout is related to the shooting of Afghan civilians on Sunday or the recent burning of Qurans at a NATO base, two events that have stoked anti-American sentiment. LEGAL While Arizona and Kansas weigh laws to protect doctors who don’t provide women all available information about their fetuses, an Oregon couple just won $3 million over a botched prenatal test. The Daily Beast’s Michelle Goldberg on the thorny concept of wrongful birth. SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP President Obama and British Prime Minister reportedly discussed releasing emergency oil reserves during their meeting on Wednesday, two sources told Reuters on Thursday, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Thursday that these reports were “inaccurate.” He said it would be inaccurate to say there is a timetable for any agreement. According to the sources, Obama brought up the issue during a bilateral meeting at the White House. U.S. gas prices are at their highest seasonal levels ever, with retail gas averaging about $3.80 a gallon. Britain reportedly will also cooperate with the U.S. in an agreement to release strategic oil stocks, two British sources also told Reuters. President Obama defended his energy policy in a speech in Maryland, calling his critics a “Flat Earth Society.“ TAKEDOWN President Obama better hope the Rutherford Hayes family isn’t still active in Ohio politics. In a speech on Thursday aimed at reforming energy policy, Obama said the 19th president’s refusal to use the telephone is “why he’s not on Mount Rushmore”—and Obama said he doesn’t plan on making the same mistake. “One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone ‘it’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?’” Obama said. “He’s looking backwards, not looking forward. He’s explaining why we can’t do something instead of why we can do something. The point is there will always be cynics and naysayers.” Obama pointed to “unnamed” Republicans running for a “certain office” that are opposed to finding alternative energy. | | 
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