It is the final day of his best year at work, and Keith Lazar, 62, settles into his corner office at the community bank. He eats a doughnut with a fork and turns on an instrumental CD titled “Relaxation.” Outside his office window, the town square is bustling with proof of his impact during the past 12 months: trucks financed by his loans, restaurants expanding because of his savings advice and small businesses created with his support. Read full article > >

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‘Life is good’ in Iowa’s Washington, but the candidates keep raising alarms

The white supremacists, survivalists and anti-Zionists who have rallied behind Ron Paul’s candidacy have not exactly been warmly welcomed. But he does not disavow their support.

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Ron Paul Disowns Extremists’ Views but Doesn’t Disavow the Support

Tuesday’s attack on Britain’s embassy in Tehran had the “acquiescence and the support of the state”, says the UK’s former ambassador to Iran.

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Iran attack ‘had state support’

On the basic question of personal popularity, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former House speaker Newt Gingrich get roughly equally positive ratings from conservatives, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll . But Gingrich has a slight advantage in some core GOP groups on “strongly favorable” numbers, one that reflects his new-found support from conservatives in the race for the Republican nomination. The latest round of national polls shows Gingrich securing the support of the GOP’s crucial conservative base, surpassing Romney at the expense of embattled Herman Cain. Read full article > >

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Gingrich and Romney equally well liked among conservatives

Several thousand protesters from across the country encircled the White House on Sunday to demand that President Obama deny a permit for a proposed oil pipeline that would stretch from Alberta to the Texas coast. Chanting “Hey, Obama, we don’t want your pipeline drama” and “yes, we can, stop the pipeline,” demonstrators warned the president that he won’t be able to rely on their support in the 2012 election if the TransCanada pipeline gains administration approval . Read full article > >

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Oil pipeline protesters encircle White House

President Obama’s support among young voters has dropped 32 percent since 2009, the Fix’s Aaron Blake wrote Thursday. How did President Obama’s approval numbers fall so sharply among a demographic that voted for him in record numbers in 2008? And how can he regain their support in 2012? We asked Twitter , Facebook and Quora followers to weigh in. Here is what you had to say. Read full article > >

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Obama and young voters: Why all the love lost?

She might be the leader of the House Tea Party Caucus, but at least one tea party leader wants Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to drop out of the race for the White House. Writing on the web site of American Majority , the group’s president Ned Ryun had blunt advice for Bachmann, who has courted and drawn much of her support from tea party activists. Read full article > >

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Michele Bachmann is urged by tea party leader to quit the race

The prospect that the nation’s biggest retailer is interested in building a 50,000-square-foot store in the Shirlington area of Arlington has prompted the county board to consider whether it should require big-box retail stores to get special scrutiny. Wal-Mart is reportedly looking into building one of its urban-style consumer emporiums along I-395 at Four Mile Run, now an industrial site, but close enough to a residential area to prompt the support of two neighborhood associations including one that represents Nauck, one of the county’s oldest historically African American areas. Read full article > >

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Wal-Mart interest in Shirlington prompts zoning questions

Democrats took away their support for stopgap in protest of disaster funding.

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GOP’s Spending Bill Rejected

The unlikely issue has become the latest flashpoint among G.O.P. presidential candidates as they vie for the support of social conservatives.

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Rick Perry Under Fire by Republican Rivals for Requiring HPV Vaccine for Girls

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — When South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley made a surprise appearance here Thursday evening on the stage of a town hall featuring Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann, the crowd erupted with a level of glee that Bachmann’s competitors could only dream about. Haley has not endorsed anyone in the still wide-open Republican field. But her rock-star status among conservative Republicans and tea party supporters in South Carolina has prompted a clamor by presidential contenders to win her support. And Haley’s recent announcement that she likely will endorse someone by the end of the year means that clamor will not die down soon in a state that has given a victory to the eventual nominee in every one of its GOP presidential primaries since 1980. Read full article > >

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Gov. Nikki Haley appears at Bachmann rally in South Carolina

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — When South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley made a surprise appearance here Thursday evening on the stage of a town hall featuring Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann, the crowd erupted with a level of glee that Bachmann’s competitors could only dream about. Haley has not endorsed anyone in the still wide-open Republican field. But her rock-star status among conservative Republicans and tea party supporters in South Carolina has prompted a clamor by presidential contenders to win her support. And Haley’s recent announcement that she likely will endorse someone by the end of the year means that clamor will not die down soon in a state that has given a victory to the eventual nominee in every one of its GOP presidential primaries since 1980. Read full article > >

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Gov. Nikki Haley appears at Bachmann rally in South Carolina

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday defended her department’s incremental response to the slayings of protesters in Syria , arguing that demands for the ouster of Syria’s president would accomplish little without the support of key allies in the region. Clinton also sought to portray the Obama administration’s policies in Syria and Libya as examples of “smart power,” an approach that she said emphasizes collective action and international consensus over unilateral solutions that rely disproportionately on U.S. troops and treasure. Read full article > >

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Clinton defends U.S. response to crackdown in Syria

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Texas Gov. Rick Perry joined the 2012 GOP race for president Saturday with an announcement sure to reverberate halfway across the country as his rivals competed in Iowa for the support of party activists. “I full well believe I’m going to win,” Perry told South Carolina voters on a conference call about an hour before he planned to kick off the campaign with a speech in Charleston. Perry criticized President Barack Obama on foreign policy and said he would do better at creating jobs. Perry said he would go to Washington to do his duty and not make friends. Read full article > >

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AP: Perry joins 2012 GOP race

The top U.S. military officer told lawmakers Thursday that he supported President Obama’s plan to draw down forces in Afghanistan , but said Obama’s decisions were “more aggressive and incur more risk that I was originally prepared to accept.” Adm. Mike Mullen , the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Obama’s decisions also had the support of Gen. David H. Petraeus , the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Gen. James N. Mattis , head of the U.S. Central Command. “There is no jumping ship here. Quite the contrary,” Mullen told members of the House Armed Services Committee. “We will have at our disposal the great bulk of the surge forces throughout this — and most of the next — fighting season.” Read full article > >

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Mullen endorses Obama troop decision, acknowledges ‘risk’