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Friday Political Grab Bag: Obama Picks Dartmouth President For World Bank...

President Obama will nominate Dartmouth College president, Jim Yong Kim, to head the World Bank. A physician and anthropologist by training and global-health expert, Kim's background makes him an out-of-the-box choice. He would become the first Asian American to head the important international funding organization.

Friday is the two-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act whose future is poised to be decided by the Supreme Court which will hear arguments on its constitutionality next week. Some believe the law could survive even if the high court invalidates the individual mandate.

Mitt Romney took a day off the public campaign trail Thursday to meet with congressional Republicans, telling them he was running to "save the country" and vowing to repeal the health-care law.

Rick Santorum, Romney's top rival for the GOP presidential nomination, has a significant lead in Louisiana whose primary is Saturday. Public Policy Polling put support levels for the Republican candidates at 42 percent for Santorum, 28 percent for Romney, 18 percent for Gingrich, 8 percent for Ron Paul and 2 percent for Buddy Roemer, the state's former governor.

President Obama's campaign aides think their candidate has an advantage over the likely Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, because of the parts of Obama's personal life many voters can identify with, like his being a big basketball fan and a dog owner.

Arlen Specter, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, said he might vote for Mitt Romney in November, though "I'm going to see which Romney it is."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Frank James joined NPR News in April 2009 to launch the blog, "The Two-Way," with co-blogger Mark Memmott.
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