Once he's laid the foundation, however, he says there's room for expansion.

ENGADGET: Insert Coin: 2012's top 10 crowd-funded projects

The President, as you know, has begun -- as he made clear he would do when he laid out his policy for Afghanistan -- he has begun to draw down forces there, the surge forces, in Afghanistan, and in a process that will, by the end of 2014, result in Afghan forces taking security lead in that country.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

He said there had been a media "feeding frenzy" after he resigned in which all sorts of things were laid at his door but he denied giving "attack briefings" against individuals.

BBC: Damian McBride with Gordon Brown

The player just laid there, arms and legs outstretched, as if he had fallen asleep in the midst of making snow angels.

FORBES: Why Is Football So Popular?

So we believe that there is support for the type of approach that he laid out in May as being a basis for negotiation.

WHITEHOUSE: Aboard Air Force One, En Route New York, New York

After failing to recapture the oil terminals at Brega and Ras Lanuf, he has apparently laid a ring of landmines to defend Sirte and deployed a brigade there, led by one of his sons, Saadi.

ECONOMIST: The battle for Libya

He was widely criticised for his laid-back style earlier in the week but at the last there was the unlikely spectacle of environmentalists cheering the ruthlessness of the chair in crushing the Russian revolt.

BBC: Science & Environment

MS. PSAKI: Well, throughout the course of the last several months as the President has been out there campaigning nearly every day, and in his speech that he delivered at the convention, he laid out these exact specific plans, the exact specifics about what he would want to do moving forward.

WHITEHOUSE: The White House