Bill Clinton On Bain: 'This Is Good Work' (VIDEO)

During an appearance on CNN on Thursday night, Bill Clinton weighed in on presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's former private equity firm, Bain Capital, which has come under scrutiny in the campaign.

"I don't think we ought to get into a position where we say this is bad work," Clinton said. "This is good work."

He continued, "I think, however, the real issue ought to be, what has Gov. Romney advocated in the campaign that he will do as president? What has President Obama done and what does he propose to do? How do these things stack up against each other? That's the most relevant thing."

Clinton characterized Romney's career as "sterling."

HuffPost's Ryan Grim and Hunter Stuart reported last week:

Romney has been reluctant recently to delve too deeply into his private equity background, as the Obama administration has hammered the GOP candidate for profiting even while workers were left jobless -- in some cases, obligations for such workers' pensions were then met by the government, and the cost foisted on the taxpayer. On Wednesday, Romney declined twice to say whether he welcomed a full discussion of the nature of private equity. Instead, he accused President Obama of not understanding how private enterprise works. "Having been in the private sector for twenty-five years gives me a perspective on how jobs are created – that someone who's never spent a day in the private sector, like President Obama, simply doesn’t understand," Romney told Time magazine.

(Scroll down for Tony Soprano's explanation of Bain Capital.)

Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker (D) recently raised eyebrows after he walked back remarks calling the Obama campaign's attack on Romney's recored at Bain "nauseating." In the aftermath, he signaled a different stance, saying he viewed the approach as "reasonable."

WATCH: Tony Soprano Explains Bain

HUFFINGTONPOST

Mitt Romney Ready To Clinch GOP Nomination On Eve Of Donald Trump Fundraiser

CRAIG, Colo. -- Mitt Romney is poised to clinch the Republican presidential nomination after Tuesday's Texas GOP primary, a largely uncontested election that will formalize the former Massachusetts governor's status as President Barack Obama's general election challenger.

While Romney's nomination has been virtually assured for a month, the day marks the culmination of several years of work, dating back to his unsuccessful 2008 effort, and perhaps far earlier.

"It'll be a big day tomorrow," Romney told reporters aboard his campaign plane Monday evening. "I'm looking forward to the good news."

But Romney's focus Tuesday will be hundreds of miles north of Texas, where he's scheduled to court voters and donors in Colorado and Nevada during a two-state swing punctuated by a Las Vegas fundraiser with conservative businessman Donald Trump.

The evening event, set for the Trump International Hotel, comes amidst fresh criticism from Republicans and Democrats over Trump's continued questioning of Obama's citizenship. Romney hasn't condemned Trump's false claims, offering a fresh example of the presidential contender's reluctance to confront his party's more extreme elements. There have been other examples in recent weeks that underscore Romney's delicate push to win over skeptical conservatives while appealing to moderates and independents who generally deliver general election victories.

Asked Monday to weigh in on Trump's support for the so-called birther movement, Romney declined to condemn Trump's latest suggestion that Obama was born in Kenya.

"I don't agree with all the people who support me. And my guess is they don't all agree with everything I believe in," Romney told reporters before flying from California to Colorado Monday evening. "But I need to get 50.1 percent or more. And I'm appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people."

Polling suggests that the election between Romney and Obama will be very close, ultimately decided by several swing states, Colorado and Nevada among them. Romney will begin campaigning Tuesday in the northern Colorado town of Craig before flying to Las Vegas for an afternoon rally before the Trump fundraiser.

The Texas primary offers 152 delegates; Romney is just 58 delegates shy of the 1,144 needed to become the nominee. His Republican rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich already have endorsed Romney, while Texas Rep. Ron Paul has stopped actively campaigning. Gingrich is expected to attend the Trump fundraiser.

Under similar circumstances last week, Romney swept all the delegates in GOP primaries in Kentucky and Arkansas and picked up more endorsements from party leaders.

But Romney's meeting with Trump may generate as much interest, or more, than his tightened grasp on the Republican nomination.

"I do not understand the cost benefit here," conservative commentator George Will said over the weekend. "The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me."

"Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low and you can still intrude into American politics," Will continued. "Again, I don't understand the benefit. What is Romney seeking?"

Trump revived the false claims about Obama's birthplace late last week, citing a discredited story about a literary agency that mistakenly listed that Obama was born in Kenya.

While Romney briefly addressed the issue Monday, his senior aide Eric Fehrnstrom also declined to condemn Trump's remarks in a recent interview.

"I can't speak for Donald Trump ... but I can tell you that Mitt Romney accepts that President Obama was born in the United States," Fehrnstrom said. "He doesn't view the place of his birth as an issue in this campaign."

Romney has been criticized on several occasions for failing to speak out against extreme rhetoric from his party. The reluctance stands in contrast to the 2008 GOP presidential nominee and current Romney supporter, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who once corrected a supporter who called Obama a Muslim.

And on Tuesday, Obama's re-election campaign surfaced a new television commercial directly accusing Romney of failing to stand up to "the voices of extremism" in his party.

The ad takes the former Massachusetts governor to task for failing to speak out against real estate mogul Donald Trump, a supporter who has consistently charged that Obama is not a U.S. citizen. It opens by showing 2008 nominee John McCain brushing aside a woman who raised the citizenship issue at a town hall-style meeting, and the commercial asks the viewer, "Why won't Mitt Romney do the same?"

Campaigning in Cleveland earlier in the month, Romney did not initially respond to a supporter who suggested that Obama should be tried for treason. He said after the rally that he didn't agree.

He was also slow to condemn conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who said a college student defending Obama's contraception policy was "a slut." At the time, Romney initially declined to weigh in on the issue before saying "it's not the language" he would have used.

And he was initially silent on violent rhetoric from classic rocker Ted Nugent before a spokeswoman said Romney "believes everyone needs to be civil."

EARLIER ON HUFFPOST:

Mitt Romney to officially clinch Republican nomination Tuesday

 Mitt Romney on the campaign trail: With the Republican presidential nomination essentially assured, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney steps up his criticism of President Obama.

For so long, he was the putative front-runner, the nominal front-runner, the weak front-runner. Then he became the all-but-certain nominee. And by Tuesday night, he’ll be able to ditch those modifiers.

Willard Mitt Romney is about to do what his father didn’t and no one in his church ever has. With Tuesday’s Texas primary, he is poised to secure the 1,144 delegates required to clinch the Republican presidential nomination at the party’s August convention.

It seems like forever ago that Rick Santorum and Newt Ging­rich were waving Etch a Sketches at their rallies in a last-ditch bid to stop Romney’s march to the nomination. The long slog of primaries effectively ended on April 3 with Romney’s victory in Wisconsin. Three weeks after that, the former Massachusetts governor returned to New Hampshire, where he launched his campaign on a windswept farm one year ago this week, to claim the mantle of nominee.
But it should become official on Tuesday, when Texas voters are expected to push Romney over the finish line in the delegate race. And with that, the Republican Party will have selected an unlikely standard-bearer for 2012: a New Englander in a party rooted in the South; a man of moderate temperament in a party fueled by hot rhetoric; a Mormon in a party guided by evangelical Christians; a flip-flopper in a party that demands ideological purity.

So it was that nobody anointed Romney. There was the humbling tumult of South Carolina, where a resurgent Gingrich threw him off balance; where he stammered on the debate stage trying to explain his taxes; where one rally crowd was so meager, about 80 people in a cavernous convention hall, that he reached for excuses — “Gosh, this is a workday, right?”

On the day South Carolinians voted, Romney, in his mind already defeated, found order in a simple chore: He fed quarters into a washer and dryer in the Columbia Marriott’s guest laundry room.

He came back 10 days later in Florida, going on the warpath to eviscerate Gingrich, only to step on his own momentum the morning after his victory by saying, “I’m not concerned about the very poor.”

A formidable adversary

After a year of criticism that he didn’t have the strength or shrewdness to take on President Obama, Romney has emerged from the bruising primary as a formidable adversary. With the race firmly in general-election mode, he is a more disciplined campaigner than he was a few months ago and has pulled even with Obama in many national and swing-state polls.

However reluctantly they may have settled on Romney, most Republicans are now rallying behind him. On Monday, about 5,000 people — one of the largest crowds of his campaign — turned out to see him pay tribute to veterans in San Diego.

Romney started sensing that enthusiasm on a cold morning three days after Christmas. He awoke in Muscatine, Iowa, and headed to a coffee shop for a quick campaign stop. It was before dawn, but his supporters had filled the cafe, snaked down a hallway and lined up in the street. Romney’s top strategist, Stuart Stevens, said he overheard a woman telling her child, “We’re here to see the next president.”

For a campaign used to having to place robo-calls and blast out e-mails to generate a crowd, this was a shock. A few hours later in Clinton, Iowa, another shock: So many people turned out to see Romney give his stump speech at Homer’s Deli & Sweetheart Bakery that he gave a second speech at Rastrelli’s, an Italian restaurant across the street.

“What a crowd! What a welcome!” Romney gushed, a little bewildered. “This response in Clinton comes as a bit of a surprise, I have to tell you.”

Now, five months later, Romney is set to make history as the first Mormon to become a major party’s presidential nominee. At age 65, he has finally achieved what his hero — his father, George — did not. George Romney, who had no college degree and as a young man sold aluminum paint cans from the back of a truck, became head of an automobile company and governor of Michigan. When he ran for president in 1968, how­ever, the GOP nomination eluded him.

It didn’t elude his youngest son. But Mitt Romney’s team is not interested in reminiscing. Asked to recall the highs and lows of the campaign, one top aide said that she is “not too interested in looking back” but would talk about “something looking ahead.” Other senior aides didn’t even respond.

A campaign diary

Romney remembers these moments, however. He has been keeping a campaign diary on his iPad, as he recently told the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan, to capture “the feelings — the ups and downs, the people I meet and the sense I have about what’s going to happen. It’s kind of fun to go back and read, as Ann and I do from time to time.”

One of those diary entries might be from the day last September when Romney piloted his ferry across a foggy Lake Huron to Mackinac Island, Mich., the summer playground of his youth where he fell in love with Ann, his high school sweetheart. Behind the wheel of the boat, he recalled taking her there for her 16th birthday. They rode around on bicycles and horses, went boating and ate lots of fudge.

Romney journeyed back to this island of horse-drawn carriages and colorful cottages last fall to address a Republican dinner at the storied Grand Hotel. When Ann joined her husband onstage in the resplendent ballroom, people clinked their glasses and the couple kissed.

Mitt Romney then delivered what still stands as one of the better speeches of his campaign. Speaking with no notes, he cast his candidacy in epic terms.

“I believe in America,” he said, repeating his campaign slogan. “I believe in freedom. I believe in opportunity. I believe that when the Founders crafted this country, they gave us not only political freedom, the right to choose who would represent us in Washington, they gave us economic freedom, the freedom to choose our course in life.

“And by virtue of those two freedoms,” he continued, “people from all over the world — seeking freedom, seeking opportunity — every pioneer wanted to come to America. And come they did, by the millions.”

Romney quoted by heart verses from “The Coming American” by Sam Walter Foss, a poem he began reciting on the campaign trail last summer in New Hampshire:

“Bring me men to match my mountains;

“Bring me men to match my plains.

“Men with empires in their purpose,

“And new eras in their brains.”

Then the Romneys retired to their suite. Unwinding with a couple of close aides, the man who would be president rubbed his wife’s aching feet and wondered if he might someday match the mountains.


THEWASHINGTONPOST

U.S. Says Qaeda Militants Killed in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — American military officials said on Tuesday that two militants killed in eastern Kunar Province on Sunday belonged to Al Qaeda.

One of the militants was Sakhr al-Taifi, according to a statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force which added that he was Al Qaeda’s second-ranking leader in Afghanistan.

However, there are no known published references to Mr. Taifi, and nobody by that name (or by two pseudonyms given by the military, Mushtaq and Nasim) appears on the official United Nations blacklist of Al Qaeda terrorists, which has several hundred names.

NATO’s statement said the two were killed in a precision airstrike after they were identified.

A spokesman for ISAF’s Joint Command, Capt. Justin Brockhoff, said that Mr. al-Taifi had connections with Taliban leaders “and exercised influence on them,” as well as controlling “multiple Al Qaeda terrorists.” He said the military’s information came from “information gathered through combined intelligence gathering.”

The second Al Qaeda figure killed was not identified by the military.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber in eastern Nangarhar Province detonated his explosives prematurely while apparently en route to the district governor’s office in Momand District on Tuesday, according to the governor, Shakrullah Durani.

Mr. Durani said two people were killed and three severely wounded, all of them passengers in the bomber’s car. He said the bomber had apparently offered them rides in an attempt to disguise his attack.

TheNewYorkTimes

Memorial Day: Americans Honor Troops

Across the world this weekend, Americans are honoring the fallen, veterans and military personnel in ceremonies and private remembrances.

-- Boy Scouts carry a large American flag through the Memphis National Cemetery in Tennessee, where scouts also placed flags on 42,000 graves. At Dover Air Force Base, the remains of fallen soldiers are returned to their families. In Afghanistan, the top U.S. commander reads a 23-year-old's letter to his family that he had prepared to be read in the event of his death.

"Today we remember his life and his words, for they speak resoundingly and timelessly for our fallen brothers and sisters in arms," said Marine Gen. John Allen, who also leads the NATO coalition in Afghanistan.

Across the world this weekend, Americans are honoring the fallen, veterans and military personnel in ceremonies and private remembrances.

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Chris Hayes: I Feel 'Uncomfortable' Using 'Heroes' To Describe Soldiers Killed In Action (UPDATE: Hayes Apologizes)

MSNBC's Chris Hayes sparked controversy and debate on Sunday when he said that he felt "uncomfortable" calling soldiers killed in action "heroes" because the term can be used to justify potentially unjust wars. He later apologized for the statement. (See apology below.)

Hayes spent a large portion of his Memorial Day-themed show on questions of war and of the people killed on all sides of military conflicts, from American soldiers to Afghan civilians.

After speaking with a former Marine whose job it was to notify families of the death of soldiers, he turned to his panel and, clearly wrestling with what to say, raised the issue of language:

I think it's interesting because I think it is very difficult to talk about the war dead and the fallen without invoking valor, without invoking the words "heroes." Why do I feel so [uncomfortable] about the word "hero"? I feel comfortable -- uncomfortable -- about the word because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war. Um, and, I don't want to obviously desecrate or disrespect memory of anyone that's fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism: hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers and things like that. But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic. But maybe I'm wrong about that.

Hayes' fellow panelists expressed similar discomfort. Linguist and columnist John McWhorter said that he would "almost rather not say 'hero" and called the term "manipulative," even if it was unintentionally so.

Hayes then said that, on the flip side, it could be seen as "noble" to join the military. "This is voluntary," he said, adding that, though a "liberal caricature" like himself would not understand "submitting so totally to what the electorate or people in power are going to decide about using your body," he saw valor in it.

The Nation's Liliana Segura then chimed in, saying that "hero" is often used to paint wars in a "righteous" way.

"These wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ... aren't righteous wars," she said. "We can't be so afraid of criticizing a policy."

Hayes' words caused a predictable furor with some. One Twitter usersaid that he was "uncomfortable with calling you an American."

Others, though, supported Hayes. "Questioning-rather than bolstering-orthodoxies is inherently controversial," blogger Glenn Greenwald tweeted. "That's what makes Chris Hayes' show so rare for TV-& so valuable."

UPDATE: Chris Hayes issued a statement on Monday apologizing for his comments:

On Sunday, in discussing the uses of the word "hero" to describe those members of the armed forces who have given their lives, I don't think I lived up to the standards of rigor, respect and empathy for those affected by the issues we discuss that I've set for myself. I am deeply sorry for that.

As many have rightly pointed out, it's very easy for me, a TV host, to opine about the people who fight our wars, having never dodged a bullet or guarded a post or walked a mile in their boots. Of course, that is true of the overwhelming majority of our nation's citizens as a whole. One of the points made during Sunday's show was just how removed most Americans are from the wars we fight, how small a percentage of our population is asked to shoulder the entire burden and how easy it becomes to never read the names of those who are wounded and fight and die, to not ask questions about the direction of our strategy in Afghanistan, and to assuage our own collective guilt about this disconnect with a pro-forma ritual that we observe briefly before returning to our barbecues.

But in seeking to discuss the civilian-military divide and the social distance between those who fight and those who don't, I ended up reinforcing it, conforming to a stereotype of a removed pundit whose views are not anchored in the very real and very wrenching experience of this long decade of war. And for that I am truly sorry.

HUFFINGTONPOST 

Obama Memorial Day Ceremony: President Honors Fallen Troops

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama paid tribute Monday to the men and women who have died defending America, pointing to Vietnam veterans as an under-appreciated and sometimes maligned group of war heroes who remained true to their nation despite an unwelcome homecoming.

"You were sometimes blamed for the misdeeds of a few," Obama said at the Vietnam War Memorial. "You came home and were sometimes denigrated when you should have been celebrated. It was a national shame, a disgrace that should have never happened."

"Even though some Americans turned their backs on you, you never turned your back on America," Obama said.

Marking Memorial Day at both the black granite wall honoring more than 58,000 soldiers who died in the Vietnam War and earlier at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from the capital, Obama noted that for the first time in nine years, "Americans are not fighting and dying in Iraq," and the nation was winding down its role in the conflict in Afghanistan.

"After a decade under the dark cloud of war, we can see the light of the new day on the horizon," Obama said to an audience gathered at the Arlington amphitheater lined with American flags under a warm, brilliant sun.

In this election year, Obama said the nation must remain committed to providing for the families of fallen soldiers and help returning service members seeking a job, higher education or health care benefits.

"As long as I'm president, we will make sure you and your loved ones will receive the benefits you've earned and the respect you deserve," Obama said. "America will be there for you."

Obama said sending troops into harm's way was "the most wrenching decision that I have to make. And I can promise you I will never do so unless it's absolutely necessary."

As he seeks re-election, Obama has reminded audiences about the end of the war in Iraq and the move to bring all troops home from Afghanistan by 2014. And in a campaign ad released last week, he credits U.S. servicemen who helped in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, meantime, promised to maintain an American military "with no comparable power anywhere in the world."

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee appeared with Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the GOP's 2008 presidential candidate, before a crowd in San Diego estimated at 5,000 in what was billed as a Memorial Day service, not a campaign event.

But Romney nevertheless drew clear contrasts with Obama. The former Massachusetts governor warned against shrinking America's military in Europe's image and said the nation must have the world's strongest military to win wars and prevent them.

Veterans could play a significant role in the 2012 election. Exit polls in 2008 showed that Obama was supported by about 44 percent of voters who said they served in the military, while 54 percent voted for McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war for more than five years during the Vietnam War.

A poll released Monday by Gallup found that 58 percent of veterans support Romney and 34 percent back Obama. The results were based on a sample of 3,327 veterans who are registered voters and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Several closely watched states in the election have large blocs of military voters. Florida, home to several military installations, has more than 1.6 million veterans, according to the Veterans Administration. Pennsylvania has nearly 1 million veterans, while Virginia and North Carolina each have about 800,000 veterans living in their states.

The president and first lady Michelle Obama started the day with a breakfast at the White House for families who have lost loved ones in combat.

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Drone Lobbying Ramps Up Among Industry Manufacturers, Developers

Rep. Buck McKeon

WASHINGTON -- It may be years before unmanned aircraft are common in the sky, but lobbyists for the industry that develops and manufactures the drones are already buzzing around Capitol Hill.

"This is one of the few areas where the government is still spending money and investing," said Alex Bronstein-Moffly, an analyst at First Street Research, which collects lobbying data.

Lobbyists are pushing on legislation, regulations and appropriations, Bronstein-Moffly said. "This is the trifecta of lobbying."

Mention drones and most people conjure up missile-firing Predators hovering high above Yemen in search of al Qaeda terrorists. Yet even as the Obama administration defends its use of the drones, the future of unmanned aircraft lies in peaceful applications here at home.

The Association For Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), an industry trade group, has said once drones are allowed to fly in U.S. airspace, "the civil market has the potential to eclipse the defense market."

That day is coming. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill, passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in February, ordered the agency to safely allow unmanned aircraft to fly in U.S. commercial airspace by 2015. The FAA recently issued streamlined licensing rules for drones for police and other public safety agencies and the Department of Homeland Security is working to speed their introduction. The FAA is expected to finalize a new rule next year for small drones weighing less than 55 pounds.

While privacy advocates fret over the implications of going from 300 licensed drones to as many as 30,000 by 2020, the industry is salivating over myriad applications that include agriculture, energy exploration, weather research, traffic control, wildlife tracking and movie production, to name a few.

A recent study by the Teal Group, an aviation and defense consulting firm,estimated that global spending on unmanned aircraft will almost double over the next decade, from $5.9 billion annually to $11.3 billion. Most of that growth will be in the U.S.

“The expansion of remotely piloted vehicles will create jobs and boost local economies across the country," AUVSI President Michael Toscano said in an emailed statement to The Huffington Post. He cited the group's study that estimated drones would create 23,000 new jobs by 2025. “In addition to the positive impact on jobs, the expansion of remotely piloted vehicles also holds the potential to save money for local governments and taxpayers, as they cost much less to operate than helicopters and other manned aircraft.”

For now, though, money is flowing into campaign war chests and covering many billable hours for lobbyists.

AUVSI more than doubled its lobbying budget in 2011, spending $280,000 to work on the FAA bill that authorizes the expanded use of drones outside the military. As a PowerPoint presentation recently obtained by Republic Reportshows, the industry group all but wrote the legislation. "Our suggestions were often taken word-for-word," it says.

No wonder. Political action committees affiliated with drone manufacturers donated a total of $2.3 million to the nearly 60 members of the bipartisan HouseUnmanned Systems Caucus, according to First Street Research. Most of that, 77 percent, went to Republicans.

The top recipient was Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), the caucus co-chair who also heads the House Armed Services Committee. He received $176,500 in donations from major defense contractors, including Northrop Grumman, whose Global Hawk drone is made in his district.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee, came in second with $112,000 from drone-related PACs. His district includes the Army's Redstone Arsenal, which conducts drone research.

When it comes to diversified defense contractors, it is difficult to determine how much money is being spent specifically on drones. Many defense contractors facing reduced Pentagon spending are scrambling to rebrand and tweak their products for the domestic market. Bronstein-Moffley has said financial disclosure data indicates that military contractors like Raytheon, Bell Helicopter Textron and General Atomics have increased their spending on lobbying.

"Military vendors are trying to craft the regulations around their products," said Patrick Egan, a small-business consultant in the industry. "Money talks."

Companies that specialize in drone technology are clearly getting their messages across.

According to data compiled by the Influence Explorer, a project by the non-partisan, non-profit accountability group Sunlight Foundation, drone-maker AeroVironment gave nearly $23,000 in campaign contributions to Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.). In 2010, the soon-to-retire congressman inserted a $1 million earmark for the company to develop a small but lethal handheld drone. Last year, AeroVironment -- which has federal contracts worth more than $100 million --spent almost $2.6 million on lobbyists.

Proxy Aviation, a small Gaithersburg, Md., company that makes software for unmanned aircraft, gave $160,000 last year and $60,000 in the first quarter of 2012 to the lobbying firm of former Republican Texas Rep. Beau Boulter.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, maker of the Army's Predator drone as well as a surveillance version for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, has shelled out $730,000 since 2003 for lobbying.

Companies aren't the only ones making their case. More than 30 communities are competing to be one of six FAA test sites that will be chosen by December.

Wilmington, Ohio, is among them. The small city near Dayton lost 9,000 jobs when the shipping company DHL left in 2009, and now hopes to turn its underused airport into a showplace where the FAA can test the integration of drones with piloted aircraft.

The Dayton Development Coalition, a regional business group, spent $60,000 to tout the site's proximity to research labs at nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The University of Dayton has spent $180,000 since 2010 to lobby for increased funding for drone research, according to Bronstein-Moffly.

Other academic institutions also are hiring lobbyists. First Street said at least a dozen universities with engineering programs are seeking federal grants for drone research. The University of Alaska, which this winter used drones to gauge ice thickness for a fuel convoy rushing to Nome, paid the high-powered Washington law firm of Patton Boggs $50,000 in the first quarter of 2012 to lobby on "unmanned aerial systems."

Carnegie Mellon University spent $85,000 during that period to make its case for drone grants to the Department of Defense.

"There is so much potential both internationally and domestically," said Bronstein-Moffley. "It's one of the areas it makes sense to be lobbying on and be heavily involved in."

HUFFINGTONPOST

Obama Pot-Smoking Details Revealed In David Maraniss Book

The meticulous biographer David Maraniss revealed President Barack Obama's early girlfriends in an excerpt of his forthcoming biography, and now theInternet is seizing upon new details of the president smoking marijuana with his buddies at the Punahou School in Hawaii.

Politico's Playbook teased the following excerpt from "Barack Obama: The Story," which will be published in June but is already viewable on Google Books. "When a joint was making the rounds, he often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted 'Intercepted!' and took an extra hit," Maraniss writes. But Obama's buddies, who called themselves the "Choom Gang," didn't mind him messing up the rotation. (After all, this was Hawaii.)

That's not all. Maraniss writes that Obama was known for starting a trend called "TA," short for "total absorption."

"When you were with Barry and his pals, if you exhaled precious pakalolo(Hawaiian slang for marijuana, meaning "numbing tobacco") instead of absorbing it fully into your lungs, you were assessed a penalty and your turn was skipped the next time the joint came around.

Maraniss also describes Obama's technique of "roof hits" while hot-boxing cars. "When the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling," he writes.

The fate of their dealer, Ray, was far more tragic than those of Obama and his largely privileged pals. In a scene that could've been in a Quentin Tarantino movie, a "scorned gay lover" later killed Ray with a ball-peen hammer.

The Huffington Post can't independently verify the claims of Maraniss, who won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1993.

Obama has been less than shy about his drug use in the past, writing about the topic in "Dreams from My Father." "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it," he writes in the memoir.

Obama's tone grows darker, and drugs are an escape for the young Obama, who is facing questions about his own identity:

Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man. Except the highs hadn't been about that, me trying to prove what a down brother I was. Not by them, anyway. I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory. I had discovered that it didn't make any difference whether you smoked reefer in the white classmate's sparkling new van, or in the dorm room of some brother you'd met down at the gym, or on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids who had dropped out of school and now spent most of their time looking for an excuse to brawl.

As Obama moved to higher stage, he's also been forthcoming about drug use. On Bill Clinton's personal triangulation that he had tried marijuana but "didn't inhale," Obama said smiling in 2006, "That was the point, wasn't it?"

Later in "Dreams from My Father," one of Obama's friends was arrested for drug possession and his mother, home from Indonesia, confronted him about it in his room, and he walked out.

The fun continued for Obama at Occidental College in Los Angeles, but he became much more serious after transferring to Columbia University after his sophomore year, when he lived, in his words, "like a monk."

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