Q: (CNN) -- If Barack Obama could make three wishes, he would probably ask for the crisis in Syria to go away. That would help him receive another wish: Getting reelected as president of the United States.

Unfortunately for Obama, and tragically for the people in Syria, history has brought the American presidential campaign and the Syrian revolution to the same pages of the calendar. That means Obama will do whatever he can, for as long as he can, to keep the carnage in Syria from interfering with his reelection plan.

That means the killings in Syria could go on longer than if the uprising had erupted during a nonelection year.

Anyone who doubts that electoral considerations have become a major factor in U.S. foreign policy should look to Obama's own words from a few months ago. Obama did not realize his microphone was on during a meeting in Seoul with then-Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, so he leaned in close and whispered, "This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility." In this instance, Obama was referring to the contentious issue of missile defense.

It's not uncommon for presidents to worry about reelection while charting foreign policy. In Robert Caro's new biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson, "The Passage of Power," he describes how Johnson made decisions about Vietnam with an eye towards the elections. Caro concluded that "the steps he took had, as their unifying principle, an objective dictated largely by domestic indeed, personal political concerns."

1. the crisis in Syria to go away
2. Getting reelected as president of the United States
3. Dimitry Medvedev,
4. Russian President
5. no
6. Seoul
7. one
8. missile defense
9. Yes
10. Robert Caro
11. Lyndon B. Johnson
12. The Passage of Power
13. Vietnam
14. yes
15. Yes
16. a few months ago
17. no

Numbered questions:
1. What would Obama's first wish be?
2. And the second?
3. Who did Obama meet with?
4. What was his job?
5. Does he still have it?
6. Where did they meet?
7. How many more elections did Obama have?
8. What was he referring to?
9. Was that debatable?
10. Who wrote a biography?
11. About whom?
12. Titled what?
13. What did Johnson decide about?
14. Was he concerned about voting?
15. Is there a war in Syria?
16. When were Obama's comments?
17. Did he know his mike was hot?

Q: (CNN) -- "I don't know the ins and outs of his politics (but) for his procession to become President I was in America and his speeches were spine tingling. Barack Obama can talk, and coming after Bush it was something to behold. In my humble opinion, if he loses the next election to the other bunch then, good Lord, I will run myself."

So says Noel Gallagher, former creative force of British band Oasis and one of rock 'n' roll's biggest mouths. Singer-songwriter, brother to Liam and now a U.S. presidential candidate: 2012 promises to be quite a year for the 45-year-old whose song-writing talent has taken him from unemployment in a city called Manchester in northern England to sell-out stadium tours around the world, playing to millions.

By September, Gallagher will have completed the tour of his first solo album since the demise of Oasis in 2009; an expedition entailing 81 shows across Europe, the Pacific (Japan and Australia) and America as well as being a voyage into the unknown for the forthright backing-singer-now-frontman.

It was initially intended as a small affair, but such has been the demand for the new record -- "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds" topped the charts in the UK in October 2011-- theaters have rapidly been upgraded to arenas to cope with demand. A move that surprised the man himself and maybe explains the overriding mood of calm satisfaction the guitarist exudes from beneath a leather jacket as he sits down with a coffee to talk to CNN.

1. Noel Gallagher
2. No
3. Big
4. Yes
5. Liam
6. September
7. No
8. No
9. 2009
10. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
11. No
12. By September, Gallagher will have completed the tour of his first solo album since the demise of Oasis in 2009; an expedition entailing 81 shows across EurEurope, the Pacific (Japan and Australia) and America

Numbered questions:
1. Who was the creative force behind Oasis?
2. Does he have a small mouth?
3. What size is it?
4. Does he have a brother?
5. What is his name?
6. When will Noel finish up his tour?
7. Is he touring with Oasis?
8. Are they still around?
9. When did they disband?
10. What is the name of his new album?
11. Was the tour originally planned to be extensive?
12. Where were the shows planned to take place?

Q: (CNN) -- Felix Baumgartner made headlines around the world when he fell 24 miles from near-space to a desert in Roswell, New Mexico, and lived to tell the tale.

The jump put Baumgartner in the record books and spelled publicity for the sponsor, Red Bull, a caffeinated sugar-y drink building a reputation for risk and adventure.

Now that the stunt is over, does it mean something to the rest of us? Baumgartner risked death. Why? Was it worth it?

Something in the human character must yearn to break into the record books. Baumgartner did set a record for supersonic travel by a human, 65 years after Chuck Yeager exceeded the speed of sound in an experimental plane. One used a rocket engine, the other used gravity; both went pretty fast.

But Yeager was testing experimental planes at higher and higher altitudes and speeds, one of the steps toward getting into space. He might have done it for the thrill but there was clearly a higher purpose, namely, the development of flight technologies.

The Red Bull extravaganza, said several involved with the project, would be useful for developing new and better space suits. My guess is that tests in a wind tunnel or a freezer would suffice, and neither would require risking a life.

The tech behind the Stratos jump

Or, astronauts could test suits outside the International Space Station, which is moving roughly 10 times faster than Baumgartner, in a much thinner atmosphere about 300 miles above the Earth, the real conditions that astronauts might face on a space walk.

1. near-space
2. a desert
3. Roswell, New Mexico
4. no
5. no
6. a stunt
7. supersonic travel by a human
8. no
9. exceeded the speed of sound in an experimental plane.
10. 65 years prior
11. 24 miles
12. yes
13. Red Bull
14. one reason
15. a higher purpose
16. the development of flight technologies.
17. developing new and better space suits
18. no
19. tests in a wind tunnel or a freezer
20. the International Space Station

Numbered questions:
1. Where did Felix fall from?
2. to where?
3. where?
4. did he die?
5. Was this an accident?
6. what was it?
7. What record did he set?
8. Did Chuck Yeager hold the old record?
9. what did he do?
10. when?
11. how far did Felix fall?
12. did he have a sponser?
13. who?
14. Did yeager do his record for the thrill?
15. whats the other?
16. what was that?
17. What is the project useful for?
18. is risking a life the only way to do this?
19. what else?
20. what moves faster than Felix?