Afghanistan, and today's declaration that President Hamid Karzai has been re-elected despite the massive fraud during the August election, was topic No. 1 at today's White House briefing.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Karzai is "obviously ... the legitimate leader of the country" now that he has been "declared the winner of the Afghan election." The U.S. will continue to discuss with Karzai and his ministers, Gibbs added, "governance, civil society and corruption ... to ensure that we have a credible partner in our efforts to help secure the country":

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As for whether this means President Barack Obama can now come to a decision about how many, if any, additional U.S. troops to send to Afghanistan, Gibbs said that "the decision is still — will be made in the coming weeks":

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