President Obama tonight delivers "his first major attempt" to explain why the U.S. has joined other major nations in taking military action in Libya and just how that campaign's objectives fit with the longer U.S. policy goal of seeing Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi leave office.
As NPR's Don Gonyea reported on Morning Edition, "the operation started nine days ago. Since then, Obama has faced criticism from Republicans — and some Democrats — for not having stated firm goals, and for not getting congressional approval first."
Politico writes that Obama's challenge "is to convince the public that, congressional nail-biting aside, he acted swiftly and decisively in the national interest. He has his work cut out for him."
USA TODAY's The Oval blog says that Obama "will probably amplify points made on Sunday interview shows by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates." Those include, according to The Oval:
-- The operation is working.
-- It has international support.
-- The U.S. is reducing its role.
-- There will be no U.S. ground troops involved.
-- The military action prevented a massacre.
What do you want to hear from the president? What key question hasn't his administration answered, in your opinion? Feel free to discuss in the comments thread.
Reminder: The president speaks at 7:30 p.m. ET. We'll be live-blogging, starting an hour or so before his address. Frank will be offering post-speech analysis over at It's All Politics.
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