Be in the know: Today's political bullet points

Every day we ask influential politicos to send us their top three bullet points that are driving the day's conversation inside and outside Washington.

Senior Political Columnist for TheDailyBeast.com John Avlon:

– Ron Paul Running: media and activists thrilled but some wonder why two-term New Mexico governor and avowed libertarian Gary Johnson can't get attention.

– Haley Barbour Out: unexpected announcement from Barbour opens up the GOP field even further. Will it induce his friend Mitch Daniels to run? And who will win the support of Barbour's Bush-connected Florida operative Sally Bradshaw.

– Syria Heats Up: The next stop on the Arab Spring Uprising tour looks like it will get uglier. As it escalates, expect more questions about the Obama administration's criteria for humanitarian military intervention and our lack of an exit strategy.

RedState.Com Editor Erick-Woods Erickson:

– Ron Paul is going to announce today that he's forming a Presidential Exploratory Committee. Gary Johnson, the other libertarian Republican is already in setting off a battle of the Paulistinians - it'll be like Hamas vs. Hezbollah, just less violent and more techie.

– Republicans lamenting the recent NLRB decisions need to be reminded they had the opportunity to defund the NLRB and caved.

– Ryan Lizza's New Yorker piece on Barack Obama keeps giving new insight. This administration really believes that the United States has been replaced by China as the world's de facto leader. So they are spinning U.S. diplomacy as "leading from behind," which really means they are followers not leaders.

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