Sheryl Crow, Michelle Obama and more

Poll: Rush Most Influential Conservative
Poll: Americans Rate Limbaugh Most Influential Conservative, Choose JFK For Mount Rushmore
Why Was Suspected Cop Shooter NOT in Jail?
Here is how the Seattle Times put it: “The 37 year old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing this morning of four Lakewood police officers has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns...
Sheryl Crow, Michelle Obama and more

by Mark Silva

All they want to do is light a tree.

But the Obamas will have plenty of help on Thursday for their first lighting of the National Christmas Tree erected between the White House and Washington Monument.

Singer Sheryl Crow is booked to perform at the tree lighting.

So are Common, Jordin Sparks, Ray LaMontagne and Celtic Woman, as well as jazz musicians Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman.

Oh, and the president and first lady will be there, too.

Until the sun goes down on the National Mall's boulevards.

(The Associated Press contributed. Sheryl Crow is pictured performing at the MLB All-Star Charity Concert under the Gateway Arch in July. (Photo by Erik Lunsford / St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT)

Examining Obama's Afghan Speech

President Obama outlines his strategy for Afghanistan at a speech at West Point. Obama will likely face a skeptical audience; support for the war is in decline. Ambassador Wendy Sherman, special adviser to President Clinton, and Michael Gerson, chief speechwriter to President George W. Bush, offer their insight.

RNC Big Ten: A Litmus Test for the GOP?
Fmr. House Leader Says Candidate's Adherence to List of Principles Would "Demonstrate That You're Someone Like Us"
Week In Review With Daniel Schorr

This week, the president prepared to announce his decision about the U.S. presence in Afghanistan; the IAEA rebuked Iran and the Senate got ready to debate the health care bill. Host Scott Simon reviews the week in the news with NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr.

Nader Noncommittal on Conn. Senate Run
Activist Being Courted by Green Party to Challenge Democrat Chris Dodd in 2010
Fact, fiction and foolishness: 2009 ebbs

by Mark Silva

In this tumultuous final year of the first decade of the 21st Century, we've found ourselves sorting through an extraordinary helping of fact, fiction and foolishness.

Fact: Unemployment in the United States surpassed 10 percent by the government's measure, the highest level of joblessness in a quarter century.

Fiction: The president of the United States is an alien.

Foolishness: Moose makes the best chili.

Sometimes, the convergence of fact and fiction makes for foolishness.

Fact is, the White House is one secure mansion -- anyone who has worked in or around 1600 Pennsylvania Avene knows the hurdles involved in getting inside the place. Fiction: It's impenetrable. This was made painfully clear this week by the foolishness of a Virginia couple dressing up for the evening and inviting themselves to a State Dinner.

The White House has released a photo, but what we'd give for a transcript of the conversation between President Barack Obama and his uninvited guests, Mchaele and Tareq Salahi, at the dinner, the first State Dinner of the Obama White House, held for Manmohan Singh, prime minister of India. Or their chat with Vice President Joe Biden.

The fact is, some jobs were created or saved as a result of the $787-billion stimulus that Obama signed into law after his first month in office, the administration's first attack at a recession understood to be the worst since the Great Depression. The fiction here involves the actual number of jobs, apparently.

The foolishness was supreme: A White House accounting of the jobs created or saved that listed them by congressional districts that don't exist.

The fact is, Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. The fiction has it that he came from Kenya. The foolishness involves how much time has been spent in all sorts of public forums -- including this one -- debating the contention of the "birthers'' that Obama is an alien.

In the clash of fact, fiction and foolishness this year, one longtime and esteemed anchor of the nation's news lost his job: Lou Dobbs left CNN after a long tirade against illegal immigration, which is a fact in this country, and dabbling wih the fiction and fantasies of the birthers, which was sheer foolishness.

Fact is, Obama is one hard-working president. A fiction which we've seen offered in these pages has it that he has taken 100 days of vacation already -- think about it, 300 days into office, 100 days of vacation. Let's see, there was that week at Martha's Vineyard, an occasional long weekend at Camp David. Uh. no.

Another fact is that Obama's predecessor spent more than a year at his ranch in Texas, counting the days, during his eight years as president. Fiction suggests that this was all time off. Presidents don't have much of it. Foolishness is debating any of this.

Facts: The surface temperatures of the world's oceans have increased. The Arctic ice cap has shrunk. Glaciers are melting into the sea. It's fiction to suggest that all of the carbon that human industry and trasnportation is pumping into the Earth's atmosphere has had nothing to do with climate change. A renowned oceanographer whom we know says that, in his decades of scientific research, he has never seen anything more real. It's foolishness to doubt the seriousness of global warming.

It's a fact that Sarah Palin is one popular Republican -- popular among a certain base of supporters, that is. It's fiction to suggest that most Americans view her as ready to step in as the next president of the United States -- some 70 percent view her as unqualified. It's foolishnessness to spend much time talking about the relative merits of moose versus cow as the main ingredient of chili -- yet Palin has taken us there, too.

It's also fun, some of this foolishness, when we get right down to it. There's a certain entertainment value to the assertion: "We eat, therefore we hunt.''

We readily admit to a certain appetite for playful banter, and we've fostered our share of it here during this tumultuous year, in The Swamp.

We also have a high and abiding regard for fact, and little patience for fiction outside the binding of a good Hemingway novel. Some call it censorship when we attempt to sort the fiction from the fact in the publication of comments here -- yet baseless fiction has a seemingly endless half-life on the Internet, and, with so many launching pads for mischief already out there in the ether we are loath to contribute to the global melting of common sense for which e-rumors deserve much credit.

Think of it as reality change.

We humans can do something about it.

Hawaii Opting Out Of Health Care Overhaul

Hawaii wants out of the national health care overhaul because it already has one of the lowest uninsured rates in the country, thanks to its 35-year-old employer mandate system. Hawaii's congressional delegation inserted language into both House and Senate health care bills that provides explicit protection for the landmark Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act of 1974. It's apparently the only state looking for such an exemption from major health care overhaul.

Lobbyists Pushed Off U.S. Advisory Panels

Lobbyists Pushed Off U.S. Advisory Panels
Washington Post: New White House Initiative to Curb Influence Could Affect Thousands
Going Rogue, Selling High
ABC's Bradley Blackburn from New York: Sales figures are out for Sarah Palin’s memoir, Going Rogue. In its first week on store shelves, the book sold 700,000 copies, according to publisher HarperCollins. That’s enough to put it high atop the...
Draft Dick Cheney: A committee is born

by Mark Silva

Here's a conversation starter: "Draft Dick Cheney.''

An admirer of the former vice president filed papers today in Washington for a committee with a goal of getting Cheney to run for president in 2012.

"The 2012 race for the Republican nomination for president will be about much more then who will be the party's standard bearer against Barack Obama,'' says organizer Christopher Barron. "The race is about the heart and soul of the GOP.''

Barron calls Cheney, the former congressman and Defense Secretary in the first Bush administratiion who arguably was the most powerful vice president of all, who played a central role in the war strategies and national security initiatives of the second Bush admnistraton, who served two terms as vice president and served three other presidents in his time, the only member of the GOP "with the experience, political courage and unwavering commitment to the values that made our party strong.''

Barron, a Washington-based campaign consultant and lawyer, has toiled for a part of that party that hasn't easily won recognition from its leaders. Founder of CapSouth Consulting, he served as the national political director for the Log Cabin Republicans, "where he directed the organization's federal lobbying efforts and media relations.'' He is a frequent columnist and commentator.

There would seem to be support in some quarters for a Cheney bid, notes Barron, quoting Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard as saying: "Of course, everyone's first choice for president in 2012 is Dick Cheney.''

Cheney has been outspoken in his criticism of the Obama administration, most recently accusing the president of "dithering'' in his decision about deployment of new forces in Afghanistana decision which the president plans to announce next week.

But then Cheney's own daughter Liz, who has been doing a lot of public speaking in her father's defense during this post-v.p. season of his discontent, allows that a candidacy at this stage in her father's lifehe has suffered repeated heart attacksis a tough sell. She told FOX's Neil Cavuto: "I have to tell you, he's my candidate. But I have yet to get him on board with the concept.''

"The Obama administration is playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette with the safety of Americans at home and abroad," Barron maintains. "He has refused to stand up to the tyrannical Iranian regime of Ahmadinejad, refused to listen to our military leaders on the ground in Afghanistan, and is bringing the mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to New York for a dangerous show trial."

Barron's group says it will work on building "grassroots support'' for a Cheney campaign in 2012. They've already got a Cheney T-shirt.

They've been going at this Draft Cheney idea on Facebook, too.

Maybe Cheney will start Twittering soon.

Couple Slipped Past Security, Crashed State Dinner

Obama, GOP Clash over cure for Economy
Holiday Messages from President and Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., Offer Different Solutions to Crisis
Going Rouge, Selling High
ABC's Bradley Blackburn from New York: Sales figures are out for Sarah Palin’s memoir, Going Rouge. In its first week on store shelves, the book sold 700,000 copies, according to publisher HarperCollins. That’s enough to put it high atop the...
Obama: Recession's tide hasn't turned

by Mark Silva

Today, on this day of a "distinctly American tradition,'' the president's tradtional weekly address arrives early.

"As much as we all have to be thankful for,'' President Barack Obama says in his address today, "we also know that this year millions of Americans are facing very difficult economic times. Many have lost jobs in this recessionthe worst in generations...

"They are our family, our friends, and our neighbors,'' he says. "Their struggles must be our concern...

"The investments we have made and tough steps we have taken have helped break the back of the recession, and now our economy is finally growing again,'' the president says. But, while "the job losses we were experiencing earlier this year have slowed dramatically, we're still not creating enough new jobs each month to make up for the ones we're losing. And no matter what the economists say, for families and communities across the country, this recession will not end until we completely turn that tide.''

See the address above and read it below.

And then let's all step away from the computer and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

This is the text of the president's weekly address:

"For centuries, in peace and in war, in prosperity and in adversity, Americans have paused at this time of year to gather with loved ones and give thanks for life's blessings. This week, we carry on this distinctly American tradition. All across our country, folks are coming together to spend time with family, to catch up with old friends, to cook and enjoy a big dinnerand maybe to watch a little football in between.

"As always, we give thanks for the kindness of loved ones, for the joys of the previous year, and for the pride we feel in our communities and country. We keep in our thoughts and prayers the many families marking this Thanksgiving with an empty seatsaved for a son or daughter, or husband or wife, stationed in harm's way. And we say a special thanks for the sacrifices those men and women in uniform are making for our safety and freedom, and for all those Americans who enrich the lives of our communities through acts of kindness, generosity and service.

"But as much as we all have to be thankful for, we also know that this year millions of Americans are facing very difficult economic times. Many have lost jobs in this recessionthe worst in generations. Many more are struggling to afford health care premiums and house payments, let alone to save for an education or retirement. Too many are wondering if the dream of a middle class lifethat American Dreamis slipping away. It's the worry I hear from folks across the country; good, hard-working people doing the best they can for their familiesbut fearing that their best just isn't good enough. These are not strangers. They are our family, our friends, and our neighbors. Their struggles must be our concern.

"That's why we passed the Recovery Act that cut taxes for 95 percent of working people and for small businessesand that extended unemployment benefits and health coverage for millions of Americans who lost their jobs in this turmoil. That's why we are reforming the health care system so that middle-class families have affordable insurance that cannot be denied because of a pre-existing condition or taken away because you happen to get sick. We've worked to stem the tide of foreclosures and to stop the decline in home values. We're making it easier to save for retirement and more affordable to send a son or daughter to college.

"The investments we have made and tough steps we have taken have helped break the back of the recession, and now our economy is finally growing again. But as I said when I took office, job recovery from this crisis would not come easily or quickly. Though the job losses we were experiencing earlier this year have slowed dramatically, we're still not creating enough new jobs each month to make up for the ones we're losing. And no matter what the economists say, for families and communities across the country, this recession will not end until we completely turn that tide.

"So we've made progress. But we cannot restand my administration will not restuntil we have revived this economy and rebuilt it stronger than before; until we are creating jobs and opportunities for middle class families; until we have moved beyond the cycles of boom and bustof reckless risk and speculationthat led us to so much crisis and pain these past few years.

"Next week, I'll be meeting with owners of large and small businesses, labor leaders, and non-for-profits from across the country, to talk about the additional steps we can take to help spur job creation. I will work with the Congress to enact them quickly. And it is my fervent hopeand my heartfelt expectationthat next Thanksgiving we will be able to celebrate the fact that many of those who have lost their jobs are back at work, and that as a nation we will have come through these difficult storms stronger and wiser and grateful to have reached a brighter day.

"Thank you, God bless you, and from my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.''

Couple Slipped Past Security, Crashed State Dinner

The Secret Service is looking into its own security procedures after determining that a Virginia couple managed to slip into Tuesday night's state dinner at the White House even though they were not on the guest list, an agency spokesman said. The Secret Service learned about the breach after the couple posted photos on Facebook.

Video: Obama's First State Dinner

Video: Obama's First State Dinner
President Obama's first state dinner was the largest social event in Washington DC, with a guest list of 350 of the biggest names from the United States and India. Nancy Cordes reports.
Quotes of the Day: 'It is my intention to finish the job'
"It is my intention to finish the job." -- President Obama, on his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan “Let me say that there is serious unrest in our caucus about, can we afford this war?” -- House Speaker...
Obama's turkey pardon: Traditional fest

by Mark Silva and updated with the pardons

President Barack Obama hasn't pardoned any people yet -- demonstrating a definitely deliberative tendency in the exercise of his constitutional clemency power -- but today he let a couple of turkeys go.

The White House pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey, a high tradition that dates to President Harry Truman's time, played out on the North Portico today, where two turkeys -- one a stand-in for good measure -- were spared the holiday butcher's knives with a presidential sendoff to the ceremenonial task of riding in Disney's Thanksgiving Day parade.

The president pardoned a 48-pound bird named Courage, but not without noting that he'd just as soon eat "this sucker.''

The last president, who already was a lame duck when he pardoned his last birds, may have seemed a more natural fit for this fowl-excuse of an event, Bush of the brush-clearing Texas ranch persuasion. (See the photo of Bush below, by the 's Gerald Herbert.) The citified Chicagoan who has moved into the White House may seem less suited for a hands-on experience with a wary turkey. But wait, Obama was a constitutional law professor, and there is an emerging legal field of animal rights.

Obama had daughters Malia and Sasha by his side, the two girls smiling wide as the president saluted the National Turkey Federation for donating this year's turkey, named Courage, from Goldsboro, N.C., and the alternate, named Carolina.

"Gobble, gobble,'' said Courage, interrupting Obama, who noted that Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson ate their turkeys.

"Thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sashabecause I was planning to eat this suckerCourage also will be spared this terrible and delicious fate,'' Obama said.

"There are certain days that remind me of why I ran for this office,'' Obama said, "and then there are moments like this, when I pardon a turkey and send it to Disneyland.''

He went on to pardon Courage, before the first dog, Bo, got involved and "screwed up'' the pardon. -- "Is there an official gesture?''asked Obama, holding a hand up like a Star Wars warrior. "Courage, you are hereby pardoned, you will live in Disneyland.'' .

"He's like a large chicken,'' a daughter noted.

"He is like a large chicken,'' the father said. "I don't know about the haircut, though.''

(The ordinarily Rose Garden-picture-perfect ceremonywas moved to the cover of the portico on a mistiy morning on the eve of Thanksgiving, and is viewable, at White House's live-streaming Web-site.)

"I am humbled by the privilege that it is to serve, and I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to every service member at home or in harm's way,'' the president said, on a more serious note today. Tomorrow, he said, he and his family will "remember... this is a time when so many members of our American families are hurting... There is a long way to go and a lot of work to do.

"In more tranquil times, it's easierr to notice our many blessing... In times like this, they resonate more powerful,'' he said. "This is an era of new hardships and perils.. We are Americans, and for all this, we give our humble thanks... On this quintessential American holiday.''
.
In the actual constitutional pardon department, during two and a quarter centuries, only three presidents have proven slower than Obama in exercising their authority of executive clemencygranting either pardons or commutations of sentences to the convicted -- with thousands of applications pending at the Justice Department.

Our expert on this is P.S. Ruckman Jr, associate professor of political science at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., who has noted that Obama recently passed Nixon with his reluctance to initial the first pardon -- Nixon, of course, got a pardon of his own later. The other four pardon ponderers were George Washington, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who created quite a stir with his final day's pardons.

White House Defends Health Overhaul's Cost-Cutting

The administration cites a letter from economists as evidence that Democrats' plans for remaking the nation's health system will tackle costs.

Health Care Overhaul: 'One More Night It Didn't Die'

Video: Obama To Announce Decision In Afghanistan
At a news conference, President Obama announced that he will announce his decision on a troop surge in Afghanistan after Thanksgiving.
Are We Becoming A Nation of Know-Nothings?
A headline in today’s Huffington Post reads “Palin Supporters Struggle To Explain Why They Support Palin”. Two interviewers from “New Left Media” recently camped out at a Borders in Ohio as people arrived for a Sarah Palin book signing. They...
Palin: 'A lot of us... smell like salmon'

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin is a celebrity.

And people are standing in lines to sign her book.

Only dead fish go with the flow, the Alaskan has said, explaining her surprise resignation as governor -- and some Trump perfume can go a long way in masking the odor.

Palin, too, has stood in line for celebs in her time.

"Twice,'' the former GOP vice presidential nominee tells Greta Van Susteren, in an interview airing in two parts on FOX's On the Record -- Monday night and tonight.

"Once with Herschel Walker,'' Palin says. "He came up to Alaska years ago to sign posters in a sporting goods stores. I drove through a snow storm to go see him."

"The other one was Ivana Trump,'' she explains. "She was at J.C. Penney in Anchorage, Alaska years ago selling a perfume.

"I happened to be in the store, stood in line, had her sign whatever she was signing and then turned around and there was a reporter asking me, why are you standing in line to see her? And I said, 'Because up here in Alaska, well, one, we -- a lot of us, you know, we smell like salmon' -- we'd just got off the salmon season -- salmon year round.

"Having someone like this in our presence, oh, gosh, we're just so honored, we're so flattered. And she (was) selling good perfume."

Of the three-week book-signing tour upon which she has embarked, Palin says she is "not tired yet. Nope. Having a ball...

"I haven't even asked the guys yet how many we've signed,'' says the author of Going Rogue, wth 1.5 million copies in the first printing. "We're just -- we're going. It's like running a marathon. You know, you're -- you're taking one step at a time and really enjoying every minute of it and knowing that at the end of the day, we'll have accomplished something good."

Palin also reflects on her brief experience in public service:

"The public service, the administrative tasks, I love it,'' says Palin, who resigned midway through her first term as governor last summer. "That's why I loved my job as governor. I loved my job as a city manager, a strong mayor. I loved those -- those positions of -- of affecting change, of helping people...

"And I love that.... Some of the crap that goes on on the periphery, it has a lot to do with the media making things rough and -- and trying to create a caricature. That's just not that much fun."

Health Care Overhaul: 'One More Night It Didn't Die'

The bill remains a patient in precarious condition, beset by all manner of ailments and infections. But it also remains alive, and at this point you could argue that whatever doesn't kill it outright makes it stronger.

You Buying Less This Holiday?

Health Care Progress Report: November 23
The Senate Prepares for an Epic Health Care Debate over the Public Option and Other Issues
You Buying Less This Holiday?
America has gone from a nation of credit card charging spenders to savers. And the Grinch appears to be poised to steel this Christmas too. The savings rate has jumped way up in the past year. Americans are nervous about...
Glenn Beck's Cabinet: Radicals, experts

'"I have been assembling a team,'' says Glenn Beck, the television commentator. "I've begun to assemble a team of advisers... to talk to me about finance, and foreign policy and education and defense, social issues, energy and health care.''

And the crowd at The Villages, a vast community near Orlando, Fla., that is a favorite campaign ground for Republicansand one of the stops along the route of Republican Sarah Palin's book-signing tour l-- oves it, cheering for the FOX News Channel celebrity at a rally held over the weekend.

Beck's Ark is lining up experts two by two on the issues, and teaming them with good, Jeffersonian "radicals:"

"I've found two really smart people in each category... and then I've coupled them with one rebelone radical. I hear it's popular to be a radical now,'' he tells his audience. "But these radicals are not the kind of radicals that are wearing the Che T-shirts. These radicals are the ones wearing the Jefferson T-shiirts.

"I have those three people n each category meet with me, and we're devising a plan,'' Beck explains, allowing that it's going to take him "about a year to complete.''

Which means, he and his team will be ready for what?

Study: Political Bent Affects How We View Skin Tone

These three photos of President Obama were among images shown to college students as part of a study that suggests political attitudes can affect the way people view skin tone. Self-described liberals were most likely to rate lightened photos as the most representative of Obama. Conservative students tended to pick darkened photos.

Video: Face The Nation, 11.22.09

Video: Face The Nation, 11.22.09
Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) debate health care reform; Dr. Jennifer Ashton and Bob Schieffer discuss mammography screening and health care reform. Plus; Bob Schieffer on the cost of security.
Health care: 2010 elections start here

by Mark Silva

With the Senate's 60-39 vote to proceed to debate, after Thanksgiving, on a health-care bill that the president is seeking by year's end, the debate of the 2010 midterm elections has been joined:

For the Democrats, in control of the White House and Congress, the congressional elections will be presented to the public as a question of fulfilling an agenda of progress and change and keeping "the party of no,'' the intransigent GOP, in check.

For the Republicans, the midterms will be presented as a chance to retake at least part of Congress from a government trying to take over more than health care, but also every aspect of life, with big-government, big-spending and taxation"socialization,'' a leading Republican senator calls it.

If President Barack Obama is unable to sign a health-care overhaul into law by the mid-term vote, the GOP will be painting a picture of a president unable to work his will with his own party in control. If there is health-care reform and more to present at the polls in 2010, the GOP will be cast by the people in power as an obstructionist, no-solution party.

We could hear it in the words of the Florida Democratic Party, where one of the signal Senate campaigns is playing out: A 2010 contest featuring a popular Republican governor, Charlie Crist, whose own party is challenging him for siding with President Barack Obama on the first of the White House's spending sprees, the economic stimulus, and where the Democratic Party has weighed in with this volley for the Crist-appointee, the interim Sen. George LeMieux, who was among the 39 Republicans voting to block the health care bill from debate last night.

"Instead of standing with his constituents, Sen. LeMieux has decided to stand with the Republican 'Party of NO," which is offering no real alternatives and no real solutions,'' the Democrats wrote in an overnight email to their forces in Florida. "Sen. LeMieux's unwillingness to even discuss the issue of health insurance in our country--which has been on the minds of Floridians for many years--shows that neither he nor Gov. Charlie Crist are interested in fixing our broken health insurance system and are only interested in seeing Democrats and President Obama fail.''

We could hear it in Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's response to the Senate vote, in which all the Republicans but the absent Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio voted against taking the health-care bill to debatejust as all the House's Republicans, except for Rep. Joseph Cao of New Orleans, voted against the House health bill.

"Make no mistake: this was not a free vote,'' Steele said. "A vote in favor of this procedural motion paves the way for the bill's final adoption, which would impose a government-run health care experiment on America that increases premiums, increases taxes, cuts Medicare and allows for taxpayer-funded abortions.

" President Obama, (Senate Majoirty Leader) Harry Reid and their liberal Senate allies will surely gloat and pat themselves on the back for winning tonight's vote in the dark of night during a rare Saturday session, while Americans were home with their families,'' Steele said. "But as they do, those moderate Democrats who voted for Harry Reid's bill will have to answer to their constituents."

That means November, 2010.

In Reid's own words to the Senate, we could hear the election tape rolling:

"It's clear by now that my Republican colleagues have no problem talking about health care in press conferences or television interviews or town halls,'' said Reid (D-Nev.) "Yet now that we have actual legislation to debate, to amend and to build onnow that we have words on paper and not just wild rumorswill they refuse to debate?

"After all, if we are not debatingif we refuse to let the Senate do its jobwhat are we doing here? If senators refuse to debate about a profound crisis affecting every single citizen, the nation must ask: in whose interest do you vote?...

"My Republican friends, there is nothing to fear in debate,'' Reid said. "Be not afraid of debate. It is our job, and it is exactly what the legislative process is all about: discussing, amending, improving. We Democrats stand ready to do what needs to be done. We welcome debate. We encourage it.''

And, in the words of Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who pushed this email out to his party's supporters overnight:

"No matter what the Democrats may try to tell you this is a bill that will increase taxes, cut Medicare and use fancy accounting tricks to hide its true cost. The American people deserve better and Senate Republicans and our supporters continue to be the only thing standing between Democrats and the socialization of the American health care system.

"We cannot allow Washington bureaucrats to take control of our health care system. ''

Or -- as he is really saying -- the mid-term elections.

Democrats At Odds Over Health Bill

Some moderates have threatened to scuttle legislation if their demands aren't met, while the more liberal members have warned their party leaders not to bend.

Senate Health Bill Faces Crucial Vote

Senate Health Bill Faces Crucial Vote
Landrieu, Lincoln Join Other Dems Supporting Debate of Bill Expanding Health Coverage for Americans; GOP Seeks to Kill Plan
Documenting the Planet's Demise -- One Striking Photograph at a Time
In just about two weeks, world leaders will gather in Copenhagen for a summit to tackle the consequences of climate change. And some of the most compelling evidence they'll consider comes from one man -- and his camera. Daniel Beltra...
Obama's approval: 49 pct, new Gallup low

President Barack Obama's public approval stood at 69 percent in the days after his inauguration in January, shown above, and reached a new low of 49 percent this week in the Gallup Poll's daily tracking surveys.

by Mark Silva

Public approval of the job that President Barack Obama is performing has fallen below 50 percent for the first time in the Gallup Poll's daily tracking of opinion.

The 49-percent approval for Obama's performance, measured this week over a three-day average of surveys between Tuesday and Thursday, marks a 20-point decline from the 69-percentage point approval that Obama enjoyed in the days after his inauguration in January.

This also marks the fourth-swifted slide of a president's approval below 50 since Gallup started tracking President Harry Truman's performance. Other surveys have put the president's approval rating below 50 and others have shown his approval hovering in the low to mid-50s, but for consistency and comparison's sake, we've always favored the Gallup findings as a number that comes with benchmarks.

"Although the current decline below 50 percent has symbolic significance, most of the recent decline in support for Obama occurred in July and August,'' Gallup's Jeffrey Jones notes. "He began July at 60 percent approval.

"The ongoing, contentious debate over national healthcare reform has likely served as a drag on his public support, as have continuing economic problems. Americans are also concerned about the Obama administration's reliance on government spending to solve the nation's problems and the growing federal budget deficit.

"Of the post-World War II presidents, Obama now is the fourth fastest to drop below the majority approval level, doing so in his 10th month on the job. Gerald Ford dropped below 50 percent approval during his third month in office, and Bill Clinton did so in his fourth month,'' Jones notes. "Ronald Reagan, like Obama, also dropped below 50 percent in his 10th month in office, though Reagan's drop occurred a few days sooner in that month (Nov. 13-16, 1981) than did Obama's (Nov. 17-19, 2009).

He also notes this, which is another reason that Gallup's numbers are worth watching: "All presidents except John Kennedy dropped below the majority approval level at some point in their presidencies, and all recovered after the first time below this mark to go back above 50 percent approval.''

For more, see the full Gallup report,.

And forgive us, please, if the pace of postings in the Swamp slows this week for a much needed Thanksgiving week break.

The Swamp wishes a Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Holdout Senators Declare They'll Vote With Party

Democrats likely have hit the magic number of 60 to move ahead on historic health care legislation.

Barack Obama: Home for the holidays

Rules Differ for Palin at Military Bases
At Fort Hood, Few Limits on Access to Conservative Star Pushing Book; Fort Bragg Bars Interviews of Palin or her Supporters
10 Reasons the Belgians Hate the British
ABC's Stu Schutzman reports from New York: “They are self centered (Literally: they think they are the belly button of the world).” Not sure what I’d think if I were called the “belly button of the world” -- just one...
Barack Obama: Home for the holidays

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama is home.

Home, where the hard work is.

With stops in 20 nations behind him, said to be the most ambitious international itinerary of any first-year president, Obama faces the closing innings of a domestic policy year in which he insisted upon a sweeping health-care reformby year's end, the president insisted.

Talk on Capitol Hill already has turned to a new deadline for passage of the legislation: The president's first State of the Union address in January, a fitting stage upon which to hail the health-care initiatives which he made the singular most important demand of his first year.

This isn't the only moving goal post: Obama, during his first days in office, vowed to close the U.S. military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in one year. This week, he allowed that Guantanamo will take a little longer -- the closing promised sometime next year.

The sheer breadth of Obama's first-year agendahealth-care, alternative energy development, recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression and the charting of a new course in Afghanistan while withdrawing American forces from Iraqmay defie the setting of hard deadlines. The depth of the partisan divide on Capitol Hill is another factor as evidenced by an economic stimulus that passed without a single Republican vote in the House, a health-care bill that passed the House by 220-215, with but one Republican vote, an energy bill with "cap and trade'' limits on greenhouse gas emissions that cleared the House only with the help of a handful of Republicans, eight.

Of all this, only the economic stimulus has found its way into law so far, and the White House was having trouble this week accounting for where the money is going.

And as the sun rose in Washington today, with the president just returned from an eight-day trek across Asia at a time in which the international goals which the president has set appear no closer to achievement than they were at the start of this year, the American public's approval of the job that the president is performing stood at just 50 percent in the daily tracking of the Gallup Poll -- a floor which the president has seen several times since August.

Obama is home for the holidays -- no real political break, though.

He's getting grey, he acknowledged this week.

Near the end of 2009, the president maintains that he isn't even thinking of 2012 at this pointand says that he is content to let the chips fall where they may. He said this, in an interview with CNN:

"If I feel like I've made the very best decisions for the American people and three years from now I look at it, and my, you know, poll numbers are in the tank because we've gone through these wrenching changes, you know, politically I'm in a tough spot, I'll feel all right about myself,'' he said. "I'd feel a lot worse, if at a time of such urgency for the American people I was spending a lot of time thinking about how I could position myself to ensure reelection.

"Because if I were doing that right now, I wouldn't have taken on health care, I wouldn't be taking on things that are unpopular,'' the president said. "I wouldn't be closing Guantanamo. There are a whole series of choices that I'm making that I know are going to create some political turbulence. But I think they're the right thing to do, and history will bear out my theories or not.''

Week In Politics Examined

Senate Democrats hoped to have enough votes this week to pass a health care bill, Obama Cabinet officials faced hostile lawmakers on Capitol Hill and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's much-awaited book hit bookstores. Political analysts E.J. Dionne, of The Washington Post, and David Brooks, of The New York Times, offer their insight.

FOX rolls wrong video, heads may roll

Can the Postal Service be Saved?
With Losses Mounting, Postal Service Seeks Autonomy, Pushes to Cut Saturday Service; Rep. Danny Davis Calls for a Bailout
Heated Exchange: Republicans Call for Geithner to Step Down
Two House Republicans, Rep. Kevin Brady and Rep. Peter DeFazio, grilled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner today -- they pressed him on unemployment, the stimulus and called for him to resign. Geithner pushed back stating: "I think that almost nothing in...
FOX rolls wrong video, heads may roll

by Mark Silva and updated with FOX apology

FOX has done it again, and this time, once again, FOX says its misplay of the wrong crowd video was another regrettable mistake.

Today, FOX News host Gregg Jarrett was talking about Republican Sarah Palin's book tour and the crowd she is drawing at the start of itno small turnout, with some 1,500 people lining up early this morning for a chance to get into this evening's premier book-signing for Going Rogue in Grand Rapids.

"Sarah Palin continuing to draw huge crowds while she's promoting her brand new book,'' FOX's Jarrett told his viewers. "Take a look at -- these are some of the pictures just coming into us... The lines earlier had formed this morning.''

But it turns out that Happening Now had pulled some video of something that happened last year: Displaying video today from Palin's campaign for the vice presidency, on the ticket with the GOP's Sen. John McCainwhich also drew considerable crowds, as shown today in video of a smiling Palin before an adoring campaign crowd.

"This was a production error in which the copy editor changed a script and didn't alert the control room to update the video,'' Michael Clemente, senior vice president of news at FOX, sad this evening. "There will be an on-air explanation during Happening Now on Thursday."

The unwelcome mishap follows soon on the heels of another FOX Paswhen the network's Sean Hannity ran video of a hugely attended TEA Party protest rally in Washington in September as Hannity was talking about a less-attended Nov. 4 rally outside the Capitol.

Comedy Central's Jon Stewart called out Hannity on that video, and Hannity apologized, on air, for what he called an "inadvertent'' error. Hannity has a book-tour interview of Palin on his show tonight, and we're betting Stewart's Daily Show crew will be watching.

So, as you might suspect, the No. 1-rated cable news network is taking today's mixing of videos quite seriously;

How seriously?

The Swamp hears tonight that it's highly like that serious disciplinary action will be taken for those responsible behind the scenes in the control room. News executives there consider this to have been a sloppy and unnecessary error.

New Thursday note: FOX made good on its promise to acknowledge the mistake and apologized for the mixup today: "We didn't mean to mislead anybody. It was a mistake, and for that we apologize.'' See it here:

Watch the latest business video at FOXBusiness.com

Army To Bar Media From Palin Event At N.C. Base

A Fort Bragg spokesman said officials feared the book-signing event would spark political grandstanding against President Obama if the media were allowed to cover it. He said Army regulations prohibited military reservations from becoming "political platforms by politicians."

Clinton Makes Surprise Trip to Afghanistan

Clinton Makes Surprise Trip to Afghanistan
Secretary of State Will Attend Karzai's Inauguration, Says This Is a "Critical Moment"
Secretary Clinton Singles Out 'Heroism' in Afghanistan
ABC's Chief Foreign Correspondent Martha Raddatz reports from Kabul, Afghanistan: It takes a lot longer to get to this war than the other one. The layovers and the plane changes add up to about twenty-four hours of travel. I had...
Palin: Fort Hood 'profile' shooter ignored

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin, author of Going Rogue, says the Army psychiatrist, a Muslim, accused of killing 13 and wounding 29 at Fort Hood, Texas, should have been "profiled'' before the shootings.

" I certainly do,'' Palin says in an interview that will air on FOX News' Hannity this evening, "and I think that there were massive warning flags that were missed all over the place, and I think that it was quite unfortunate that, to me, it was a fear of being politically incorrect to not -- I am going to use the word -- profile this guy, profile in the sense of finding out what his radical beliefs were.''

Palin, who is promoting her new memoir with a national book tour beginning in Grand Rapids this evening, tells FOX's Sean Hannity that her views about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, held in the shooting spree that shocked Fort Hood, the Army and a nation are likely to get liberal "heads.. spinning.''

"Now, because I used the word profile, I am going to get clobbered tomorrow morning,'' Palin says in the interview, her first with a cable TV news network, the leading one in this case. "The liberals, their heads are just going to be spinning. They're going to say she is radical, she is extreme.

""But I say profiling in the context of doing whatever we can to save innocent American lives, I'm all for it, then."

(Pictured above, a man waiting in line for the signing of Sarah Palin's new book at a bookstore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Photo by Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)

The Republican former governor of Alaska and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee says in the interviewand she isn't giving a lot of these talks at the start of the book tour, only speaking with Oprah Winfrey, ABC's Barbara Walters, Hannity and Christian Broadcastingthat she hopes to play a significant role in the future.

"I want to help those worthy causes like special needs, making sure that our world is a more welcoming world for the most special ones,'' says the mother of five, whose youngest was born with Down syndrome. "Don't know if necessarily that means running for higher office, but you know, my life is in God's hands, and I'm seeking that path that he would have me on...

"You're going to hear a lot from me,'' Palin says. "So, you know, the haters are going to have a whole lot of material. Tina Fey, she may have a whole lot of material coming up."

She cannot offer any prediction about her plans for 2012"I wish that I could predict andand prepare for what's going to happen in four years,'' she tells Hannity.

She says this about the campaign pastthe worst moment was having her personal emails hacked "and then being broadcast around the world.. '' And her return to public life has had its choice moments as well, such as the Newsweek magazine cover picturing her in tights, a photo taken for Runner's World magazine"It was just -- just another little shot,'' Palin says.

"But in the grand scheme of things, of course, things like that really don't amount to a hill of beans, when there are many things that are going wrong, something's going right, but something's going wrong in our country that people want to hear about and talk about...

"I think that the American people, they're tiring of the tabloidization of some people, like me. And they want to get to the issues,'' says Palin, who suggested in an interview with ABC that the Israelis should be allowed to continue expansion of settlements in Palestinian territories and that President Barack Obama should listen to what his generals are telling him to do in Afghanistan and that the president, as far as his economic policies are concerned, has things "backassward.''

"As a person, I think he's very charismatic, quite articulate,'' Palin says of Obama in her talk with Hannity. "Very, very talented as a politician.'' (Obama says he wishes her well, too, but "probably won't'' be reading that book of hers.) "I'd like to see him put all of those God-given talents that he's so full of to better use for America."

Asked if she believes, as FOX's own Glenn Beck has argued, that Obama is a radical, Palin says, "I will not hesitate to say that his associates have been extremely radical and we see that then in some of the appointments he has made."

Also, she finally has an answer for Katie Couric's famous campaign question of the vice presidential candidate about what sources of news she reads for information.

"I read Newsmax and the Frontiersman (the local newspaper in Wasilla, Ala., where Palin was mayor, which notes today that Palin's book tour has folks wondering if this is the start of a campaign) and Wall Street Journal and everything online,'' Palin says. "I absorb the news via many, many sources."

Holder: No Failure In 9/11 Prosecution

Attorney General Eric Holder told senators Wednesday "failure is not an option" in the prosecution of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Holder explained his rationale to bring Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects to the U.S. for a civilian trial.

Lego Madness: Iconic Toy Company Thrives Despite Recession

Video: Unplugged: Dissecting Contradictions In "Going Rogue'
With the release of "Going Rogue," coinciding with a week-long media blitz, Washington Unplugged dissects contradictions in her new book? Nancy Cordes spoke with CBS' Scott Conroy, GOP strategist Matt Mackowiac and Huffington Post's Sam Stein.
Lego Madness: Iconic Toy Company Thrives Despite Recession
The recession's taken a toll on the toy industry, but one brand has been busy bucking the trend and building its business. We're referring to the Lego company -- so Nick Watt went to its headquarters in Denmark to learn...
Senate blocks Guantanamo-saving bid

by Richard Simon

The Democratic-controlled Senate today thwarted an effort to block spending for upgrading facilities in the United States for housing prisoners transferred from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a move that Illinois officials feared could have complicated efforts to place detainees at a prison in their state.

The measure was defeated on a mostly party-line vote of 57-43.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) proposed the restriction as an amendment to a spending bill for military construction and veterans programs, telling his colleagues, ``If you want terrorists here, then vote against this amendment.''

Opponents assailed it as an attempt to block the closing of Guantanamo Bay, a priority of President Obama.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has touted the jobs and other economic benefits that would be created by housing prisoners at a near-empty prison about 150 miles west of Chicago, read a letter on the Senate floor from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. calling the closing of Guantanamo Bay ``in the national security interests of the United States.

"Al Qaeda has repeatedly used the existence of the facility as a recruitment tool,'' the Obama Cabinet members said of Guantanamo in their letter.'

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, contended the amendment would ``actually make us less secure by restricting our ability to improve security at facilities'' that house detainees transferred to the United States from Guantanamo Bay for trial.''

Durbin argued that the amendment would not prevent detainees from being transferred to the United States but would bar spending federal funds to tighten security in places such as New York City where several accused terrorists, including the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, are expected to go on trial.

``How much sense does that make?'' Durbin asked. ``If there is the need to upgrade security so they can be tried in a safe environment with no danger to the people of New York City, we want to spend that money.''

Environment Or Economy? Obama's Balancing Act

To sell Congress and others on the idea of taking bold steps to curb global warming, President Obama casts his arguments in terms of job creation. Many environmental activists say they wish he'd do more to push the "green" agenda.

Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton: Presidential?

Health Bill Foes Solicit Funds for Study
Washington Post: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Assumes Study will Find Health Care Bill Would "Kill Jobs"
Will The Jobs Be Coming Back Anytime Soon?
ABC's Stu Schutzman reports from New York: Some employment experts say yes. Even as the numbers get bleaker by the month and the phrase “jobless recovery” resounds more and more in the media, some analysts believe the bottom is near...
Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton: Presidential?

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin has a book, Going Rogue.

Hillary Clinton has a book, It Takes a Village.

But on the eve of the release of Palin's memoirs, a day in which Palin is appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Clinton is traveling through China as secretary of state, Palin does not have what it takes to be president, most surveyed say.

But Clinton does.

Just 28 percent of those surveyed by the post-Lou Dobbs CNN and Opinion Research Corp. say Palin, the former governor of Alaska, is qualified to serve as president -- and 70 percent say she is not.

Speculation about Palin's potential interest in the 2012 Republican nomination, following her run at the White House with John McCain in 2008, has been spurred by the publication of a memoir filled with regrets about the conduct of McCain-Palin.

At the same time, only 50 percent of those surveyed see Vice President Joe Biden -- "can I call you Joe?'' Palin asked of him during their 2008 running mates' debate -- as qualified to serve as president. And 48 percent say he is not. Which could help explain that 71-vehicle motorcade that President Barack Obama rode into Beijing today.

(Obama seriously considered Clinton as a running mate, his campaign manager has told us -- see the book mentioned below -- but Obama worried about Bill Clinton.)

Yet Clinton, who was favored to win the Democratic nomination for president last year until someone from Chicago had the "audacity'' to hope -- and "The Audacity to Win,'' as campaign manager David Plouffe has entitled his own book -- is viewed by two-thirds of those surveyed as qualified to be president. The former first lady has the confidence of 67 percent of those surveyed, with 32 percent saying no.

Yet Clinton says she has no interest in running again.

As for the rest of the potential 2012 GOP pack, Palin may have some catching up to do with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the GOP's Iowa caucuses last year -- and who, it turns out, will also be making his own appearance in Grand Rapids this week as Palin launches her book-tour there. Forty-three percent of those surveyed say Huckabee is qualified to serve as president.

And 47 percent say Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who also sought his party's nomination in 2008, is qualified.

The Nov. 13-15 survey of 1,014 adults, including 928 registered voters, carries a possible margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Abortion Ban In Federal Workers' Insurance May Foreshadow Overhaul Outcome

A 41-year-old federal worker explains how her insurer denied coverage of a medically necessary abortion under a decade-old rule that resembles a current proposal for health overhaul.

Obama Walks Tightrope in 1st Trip to China

Obama Walks Tightrope in 1st Trip to China
President's Talks With Beijing Must Balance Talks on Trade, Climate Change with Human Rights, Iran Sanctions
Sarah Palin 'bottled up' no more: Lid off

by Mark Silva and updated

It is billed by early readers as a blend of redemption and revenge, with a certain measure of pay-back for those campaign strategists who insisted that Sarah Palin stick with the script in John McCain's campaign for president, accusing her, with a complaint that became the inspiration for her memoir's title, of Going Rogue.

Yet, days before the official release of Palin's book on Tuesday, the 2008 Republican nominee for vice president already is getting some push-back for the pay-back she is dishing out, with a book tour starting in Grand Rapids this week that is sure to look like push-back to the push-back for the pay-back.

And, for Palin, it will amount to one great pay-off.

Welcome to the Bulldog edition of The Swamp, the one that comes out the day before it says it's coming out. We've always had a certain love for the Bulldogthere is something urgent about a paper that arrives the day before it arrives, something that focuses the mind on deadline. In the interest of delivering an early look at the book that everyone's already looking at, and which a few readers have read and reported on, and in hopes of taking the better part of Sunday off, Sunday's Swamp is here already:

And in true Bulldog followup tradition we have an update this morning: Palin says the media are still "making things up.'' At her Facebook headquarters today, Palin writes: "They're now erroneously reporting on the book's contents and are repeating many of the same things they spewed during the campaign and afterwards.''

Taking note of all the news people said to be "fact-checking'' her book, she scoffs at "dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book, instead of using the time and resources to 'fact check' what's going on with (9/11 plotter Khalid) Sheikh Mohammed's trial, (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi's health care takeover costs, (Fort Hood suspect Nidal Malik) Hasan's associations, etc. Amazing.... We'll keep setting the record straight, and we'll keep reminding some in the media that Americans are very tired of their non-objective reporting.''

The former governor of Alaska, who abrubtly resigned last summer in the midst of persistent complaints about her ethics, gets personal in the 413-page book that will make its real media debut on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday. She delves into the pain of teenage daughter Bristol's pregnancy which the world learned of with the Republican Party's nomination of a vice presidential candidate little known beyond Wasilla before that. But she steers clear in this book of her grandbaby Tripp's father, the estranged Levi Johnston, who has aired the Palin family's dirty laundry on television and shed his own underwear for Playgirl.

Her own high-priced, party-leased wardrobe, which had become a lightning rod for the Republican during the few months in which she campaigned with McCain, had been one of the points of contention between Palin and the campaign's strategists, she writes. Even her diet was a problem for strategists pushing Atkins Diet bars on her -- no Mooseburgers on the road ("We eat, therefore we hunt.")

If she spares the rod for Johnston, Palin lets loose on McCain's men. She writes bitterly of being barred from delivering her own concession speech on election night, how she'd been kept "bottled up" during the campaign and kept from being herself. She says she was prepped to give non-answers to Joe Biden in debate

Palin drew at least a $1.25 million advance for this book, ready months ahead of schedule with the help of a professional writer, Lynn Vincent, with a first printing of 1.5 million copies from HarperCollins and top billing on the prepublication sales lists at Amazon and other deals. The conservative NewsMax has gathered some copies, peddling them at deep discount and giving them away for free to subscribers.

"As you probably have heard, the snagged a copy of my memoir, Going Rogue, before its Tuesday release," Palin wrote in her Facebook Notes. "And as is expected, the and a number of subsequent media outlets are erroneously reporting the contents of the book,'' she wrote. "Keep your powder dry, read the book, and enjoy it! Lots of great stories about my family, Alaska, and the incredible honor it was to run alongside Senator John McCain."

All of which seems supremely fashioned to spur sales even more, with the 's director of media relations maintaining that it has made a fair and careful pre-release account of the book. That following on Facebook is now near one million, close to double what it was when she resigned midway through her first term.

And Palin is engaging full-bore in current events, calling the Obama Justice Department's decision to try the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in criminal court in New York "atrocious.''

"Horrible decision, absolutely horrible,'' Palin writes on Facebook near the eve of her book tour. "It is devastating for so many of us to hear that the Obama Administration decided that the 9/11 terrorist mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be given a criminal trial in New York. This is an atrocious decision..... The trial will afford Mohammed the opportunity to grandstand and make use of his time in front of the world media to rally his disgusting terrorist cohorts. It will also be an insult to the victims of 9/11, as Mohammed will no doubt use the opportunity to spew his hateful rhetoric in the same neighborhood in which he ruthlessly cut down the lives of so many Americans....

" If we are stuck with this terrible Obama Administration decision,'' Palin writes, "I, like most Americans, hope that Mohammed and his co-conspirators are convicted. Hang 'em high.''

Palin, for her part, will be steering clear of New York on a three-week book tour starting in Grand Rapids and ranging from Bloomington, Minn., to Fort Bragg, N.C., before heading out West after Thanksgiving.

The memoir, the reports, starts with Palin's birth in Sandpoint, Ohio, and alludes to the unknown about her future from here. But it is the accounting of her confrontations with her own campaign's strategists and the national media that stand out.

Her encounter with CBS News' Katie Couric, which exposed more about what Palin didn't know, or read, than what she did, she recalls as condescending, biased and full of "badgering.'' She maintains that the CBS anchor went to town with the "gotcha'' momentssuch as Palin's inability to name the newspapers she reads regularlyand left more substantive material on the network's editing table.

The isn't the only party that found an early copy of the book. So did the Huffington Post.

"Going Rogue is, at its heart, one giant complaint about the conduct of John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign,'' the HuffPost's Sam Stein and Lila Shapiro write. "At the nexus of Palin's grievances lies Schmidt, a character cast as out of touch, overly cautious, and vindictive.''

Palin claims she and the campaign's strategists were "very comfortable with each other right off the bat," and she calls Schmidt "business to the bone." During her vetting Schmidt plays it cool.

Palin complains of being "told to sit down and shut up" when she "spoke on the trail about (then Democratic presidential candidate Barack) Obama's associations with questionable characters." She complains that the campaign feared to take on Obama's former, longtime pastor of twenty years, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"I will forever question the campaign for prohibiting discussion of such association," Palin writes. "All the more since these tell-tale signs of Obama's views, carefully concealed with centrist campaign-speak have now been brought into the light by his appointments and actions in office."

Her disdain for Schmidt and others of the "professional political caste''' jumps off the pages.

The HuffPost has served up an excerpt about the animosity growing peronsal when Schmidt wanted to put Palin on the Atkins Diet.

"I had to do a mental double take.

"The Atkins bars -- that must be it. They were everywhere, in every hotel room and on every snack table along the trail. They were great, when I didn't have time to slow down and eat, but I didn't know why they were all over the place.
"I'm not on the Atkins Diet, Steve."

"Don't you know what a high-protein diet does?" he asked, ignoring what I had just said.
He then launched into a discussion of nutrition physiology, holding forth on the importance of carbohydrates to cognitive connections and blah-blah-blah. As he lectured, I took in his rotund physique and noted that he used nicotine to keep his own cognitive connections humming along.

"I interrupted his lecture. "Steve, you know what I really need? Half an hour to go for a run in these beautiful cities we're visiting. Also, seeing my kids does wonders for my soul."

"He barreled on as if I hadn't spoken. "Headquarters is flying in a nutritionist, and for three days you're going to be on a diet balanced in carbohydrates and nitrates and --"
I'm a forty-four year old, healthy, athletic woman raising five kids and governing a large state, I thought as his words faded into a background buzz. Sir, I really don't know you yet. But you've told me how to dress, what to say, who to talk to, a lot of people not to talk to, who my heroes are supposed to be and we're still losing. Now you're going to tell me what to eat?''

Palin laments over her indecisiveness in dealing with Saturday Night Live's parodies of her, Stein and colleague write, insisting that she should have gone on the show earlier to counterbalance the searing portrayals of her by comic Tina Fey.

"Just stick with the script," Schmidt would say. "Ultimately," Palin writes, "this hurt the campaign to a degree the 'experts' could never grasp."

" Now I was in the hands of 'campaign professionals' Palin writes, " and it was my first encounter with the unique way of thinking that characterizes this elite and highly specialized guild. In Alaska, we don't really have these kinds of people -- they are a feature of national politics. Naturally enough, as the experts, they are used to being in charge. But no matter how "expert" any of them was, nothing had apparently prepared them for the unprecedented onslaught of rumors, lies, and innuendo that "packaging" would have on my candidacy. ''

The decision to purchase designer clothes for Palin is ascribed to communications adviser Nicolle Wallace.

"I had a humbling experience while we were back in Wasilla for the Charlie Gibson interview in September," Palin writes. "While the crews turned my kitchen into a television studio, I took Nicolle into my bedroom and showed her what I thought I should pack for the trail. She flipped through my wardrobe with a raised eyebrow."

Palin recoils at the memory of the prank call of the media from Canada posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and suggests the campaign pros who thought they were such pros should never have let her get on the phone with the caller.

"By that time I'd received calls from presidents of other countries and our own, and had met elder statesmen and other dignitaries, so it didn't surprise us too much that we'd be speaking with the French leader,'' Palin writes.

"He's got to be drunk, I thought.

"I didn't want to offend the president of France, but this was getting stupid. I kept thinking, surely, someone will pop up and say something like, "Okay, the five minutes are up," but the call just went on and on and on. By now, I was thinking exit strategy. And I kept trying to laugh, even though it was increasingly unfunny.

"Right away, the phones started ringing. One of the first calls was Schmidt, and the force of his screaming blew my hair back. "How can anyone be so stupid?! Why would the president of France call a vice presidential candidate a few days out?!"

"Good question, I thought,'' Palin writes. "Weren't you the ones who set this up?"

"Somehow,'' the author of Going Rogue writes, "the Palins were responsible for all of the campaign's problems."

Obama Tests The Air In China

President Obama is in Shanghai Sunday on his first visit to China. The formal agenda includes trade relations, security issues, human rights and climate change. He's hoping to win China's help in efforts to stop nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran. The huge trade imbalance between the two countries is also likely to be a topic. Host Liane Hansen talks with NPR's Louisa Lim.

Obama: No "Political Theater" Over Hasan

Obama: No "Political Theater" Over Hasan
Orders Full Investigation Into Ft. Hood Shootings, Asks That Congressional Hearings Not Compromise Probe
Clem's Chronicles: Gitmo Detainees heading to NY/Water on the Moon/Obama in Asia
Have a good weekend everyone. Here's our Friday night note...... TERROR TRIALS/KSM TO NY-Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self proclaimed “architect” of the 9/11 attacks and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be brought...
Obama bows to emperor, world reels?

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama has bowed to royalty, with a greeting for the Japanese emperor that erases any doubts about what the president's posture was -- remember that bow to the Saudi king that was not really a bow?

And some people are falling over backwards today.

Our colleague, Andrew Malcolm, at Top of the Ticket, muses on the president's meeting with Japanese Emperor Akihito today, and suffice it to say that the article will light a brush fire of commentary stoked by the hot winds of the Drudge Report's headline.

See the Ticket's report there or read it here:

(And stick around for some comments below.)

The photo above is by Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty, Reuters All of this brought to mind our snapshots from our trip to Japan with then-Vice President Dick Cheney, and his meeting with the emperor, in February 2007. Our own photos suffer from a certain lack of light in the ceremonial arrival room at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and distance from subjects, but the closest we recall Cheney coming to a bow was that certain lean of his. These photos by Mark Silva:

by Andrew Malcolm
Top of the Ticket, Los Angeles Times

How low will the new American president go for the world's royalty?

This photo will get Democrat President Obama a lot of approving nods in Japan this weekend, especially among the older generation of Japanese who still pay attention to the royal family living in its downtown castle. Very low bows like this are a sign of great respect and deference to a superior.

To some in the United States, however, an upright handshake might have looked better. Remember Michelle Obama casually patting Britain's Queen Elizabeth on the back during their Buckingham Palace visit? America's royalty tends to make movies and get bad reviews and lots of money as a sign of respect.

Obama could receive some frowns back home as he did for his not-quite-this-low-or-maybe-about-the-same-bow to the Saudi king not so long ago. (See photo here)

Akihito, who turns 76 next month, is the eldest son and fifth child of Emperor Showa, the name given to an emperor and his reign after his death.

Emperor Showa is better known abroad by the life name of Hirohito. He became emperor in 1925 and died in 1989, the longest historically-known rule of the nation's 125 emperors.

Hirohito presided over his nation's growth from an undeveloped agrarian economy into the expansionist military power and ally of Nazi Germany of the 1930's.

And, later, Japan became a global economic giant. Hirohito, along with Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who authorized the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, were much reviled abroad during World War II.

Historically, debate has simmered over how much of a political puppet Hirohito was to the country's military before and during the war.

Even after Democrat President Harry Truman ordered the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the summer of 1945, there were strong forces within Japan that wanted to continue to fight the Americans in the spirit of kamikaze suicide pilots.

But Akihito's father went on national radio, the first time his subjects had ever heard Hirohito's voice, and without using the inflammatory word "surrender," pronounced that the country must "accept the unacceptable." It did.

As the conquering Allied general and then presiding officer of the U.S. occupation, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, decided to allow Japan to keep its emperor as a ceremonial unifying institution within a nascent democracy.

Tojo, on the other hand, was hanged.

MacArthur treated Emperor Hirohito respectfully but, as his body language in this black and white postwar photo demonstrates, was not particularly deferential.

(But then MacArthur was not known as a particularly deferential person, as Truman discovered just before firing him later. But that's another war.)

Akihito was born during Japan's conquering of China and was evacuated during the devastating American fire-bombing of Tokyo, which was built largely of wood in those days.

The future emperor learned English during the U.S. occupation, but, inexplicably, his father ordered that his oldest boy not receive an Army commission as previous imperial heirs always had.

Akihito assumed the throne on Jan. 7, 1989. Within weeks he began a series of formal expressions of remorse to Asian countries for Japan's actions during his father's reign. In 2003, he underwent surgery for prostate surgery.

In 1959, Akihito married Michiko Shoda, the first commoner allowed to enter the Japanese royal family. That was two years before the birth of Akihito's future presidential guest, Barack Obama.

President Obama Brings Personal Ties To Asia Tour

President Obama is vowing to strengthen U.S. ties to Asia in an effort to address global challenges such as climate change and the spread of nuclear weapons. Speaking in Tokyo Saturday, Obama also tried to sell renewed relations with Asia as a key to job growth here at home.

Obama Eyes Budget Freezes to Fight Deficit

Obama Eyes Budget Freezes to Fight Deficit
White House Directs Agencies To Plan for Spending Halts and Possible Cuts Ahead of Midterm Elections
Quotes of the Day: 'There is precisely one superstar in the Republican Party'
“I’m absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice. The American people insist on it. My administration will insist on it.” -- President Obama, on the news that the 9-11 mastermind and...
Anita Dunn: 'Going rogue' not her way

by Mark Silva

Was Anita Dunn, the outgoing communications director of the White House, speaking for herself when she called FOX News "an arm of the Republican Party'' on a rival cable news network's program, or was this something that Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and political adviser David Axelrod had planned ahead of time?

"I am not exactly one known for 'going rogue,''' Dunn said today, with an allusion to the well-known Republican, Sarah Palin, whose campaign had accused her of going off-script.

"The reality is that the media environment has changed so dramatically over the last decade, that what we think of as traditionally news sources, has changed,'' Dunn said, pointing to Comedy Central this week calling out FOX's Sean Hannity for mixing video of one well-attended protest rally with video of another less-attended rally ("We screwed up,'' Hannity acknowledged on his own program this week.)

"The people who did the fact checking on this, the people who exposed this, Jon Stewart on Comedy Central... well, that's where you're getting fact checking and investigative journalism these days, folks'' Dunn told an audience at Bloomberg's Washington Summit this afternoon, and so the White House too is watching when news is skewed. "For mainstream journalists, it is important for them to know that we are following those stories... that really don't live up to the scrutiny that you would bring to them.''

Okay then, was the president aware that Dunn was going to say what she said of FOX in that appearance on CNN, where she also suggested that FOX is not a news network in the traditional sense?

"I am not a person who is known for going rogue,'' Dunn said carefully, "but we also don't discuss personal decisions.''

This drew a knowing laugh from an audience here at the Newseum, where interviewer Al Hunt of Bloomberg News also asked Dunn what she thinks of MSNBC. The morning host, she noted, is a Republican from the "Gingrich Revolution'' (that's former Rep. Joe Scarborough of Pensacola), and they have a lot of commentary. "I do regard them differently as a network,'' she said.

Dunn herself also has come under the scrutiny of FOX's Glenn Beck, who had some fun playing the video of a speech she gave in which she cited her two favorite political philosophers, Mao Zedong and Mother Teresa. Dunn, who campaigned for Barack Obama for president, and fomer Sen. Bill Bradley before that, stepped in as White House communications director on an interim basis earlier this year, and is leaving on Dec. 1though says she will continue to serve as a consultant. Her husband, Bob Bauer, will become White House Counsel by year's end.

Is Obama disappointed on not having changed 'the tone'' in Washington that he hoped to change, Hunt asked? "I think he would have loved to be able to change more of the tone,'' Dunn said. "At the end of the day there is only so much he can do.''

Is there one big communication success she can cite?

"I think that the successful communications triumph is probably, it always starts with the president, and his speech to a joint session of Congress,'' Dunn said. "Which really did redefine the issue, which really did give momentum to what you're seeing today.... We have a president who writes most of his best speeches and really delivers them well.''

One big communications disappointment?

"I wish that we had earlier put more attention and resources into building our online community in the White House, which is something we did successfully during the campaign,'' Dunn said. "I think, in keeping with the president's real commitment to transparency, but also in bringing more people into the process, there is more we can do..''

Asked about Republican strategist Karl Rove's comment that the Obama White House is uncompromising and running roughshod over critics with a Chicago-brand of politics:

"Well, gee, Karl... At times like this, as the mother of a boy who only recently hit his teen years, I am always inclined to fall back on something like, 'I'm rubber, you're glue.'... .You see a president who has really gone to extraordinary lengths to reach out with people who don't agree with him.

"The reality is that, for the first time in history -- and this is a bell that can't be un0rung after we leave -- every visitor to the White House is going to be made public,'' she said of the Obama administration's decision to publish quarterly the list of everyone who visits the White Housea visitors log that the Bush White House fought to keep secret. "We are running this transparent and accountable administration that basically reaches out to people who agree and disagree with us... That was not the case when Karl Rove was calling the shots in the last eight years,''

Are the public opinion polls "heading South'' a measure of a problem of policy or communication, Hunt asked Dunn.

"This is my third go-'round with this,'' she said, having worked with Sen. Bradley on the issue and then during the New Jersey Democrat's bid for his party's 2000 presidential nomination. "There is a reason that people have not been able to do this. It is complex.... It is the communications challenge of all time... but when it passes, and when it becomes law, people will feel that real change has come to Washington.''

On Afghanistan, would it have been better for the administration to have moved more swiftly on a new deployment?

"I think the American feel we want to put a process in place, to ask questions before we put troops in,'' she said. "This is the toughest and most serious decision that any president faces, committing American troops... and taking the time to do it properly, to make sure you have asked all the questions and challenged all the assumptions... that is something the American people appreciate.

Dunn, one of the higher-level women to work in the Obama White House, also was asked here about those all-male basketball games that the president plays.

"I don't want to play basketball with the president,'' Dunn told Hunt. "We work really long hours. We want to go home.''

Obama's Half-Brother Recasts Story Of Their Father

One person who plans to meet with President Obama during his trip to China is his half-brother, Mark Obama Ndesandjo, who lives in China. Ndesandjo has recently released a semi-autobiographical novel, revealing the abusive nature of their father.

Our Cancer Story -- Shrinking Tumors At Mass General

Video: Sarah Palin's Campaign Interviews
During an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" Sarah Palin discussed the various interviews during her V.P. campaign. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" Monday, November 16.
Our Cancer Story -- Shrinking Tumors At Mass General
Bill Schuette was a lung cancer patient in Versailles, Ohio who had tried seven different kinds of chemotherapy without much success and he was losing hope. That is until he saw one of our broadcasts this past June and a...
Blackburn: TEA Parties rallying women

by Mark Silva

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee and the first woman elected to Congress in her district, also serves as chairwoman of the songwriter's caucus. There is a growing choir of discontent with Washington among the public, she says.

Blackburn was among the Republican congressional leaders at the TEA Party tax protest outside the Capitol recently. She was asked today, at a conference in the shadow of the Capitol, if she is concerned about "the tone'' of the proteststhe suggestion, for instance, that House Republican Leader John Boehner has made that the health-care legislation is the greatest threat to American freedom that Americans have seen for some time.

"You know what is so interesting about the TEA Party movement?'' Blackburn asked. "The amazing thing to me about the TEA Parties is, when you look out across the crowd, the crowd is predominantly female... It's amazing, the number of women attending these events, and women are speaking out as never before... They are looking at what is happening with the cost of health care, they are truly concerned about the strong arm of government reaching into their lives and into their pocketbooks.''

But is the health-care bill, as some have called it, tyranny?

"Let me tell you why it is a clearly defined threat, because this is a bill that will change the way health care in this country works,'' she said at the Bloomberg Washington Summit at the Newseum this afternoon. "There's a lot of worry....''

Readers of the Swamp might recall Blackburn as the Republican who warmed up the crowd for the acceptance speech of Republican presidential candidate John McCain at the 2008 GOP convention in St. Paul (pictured there, above, in a photo by Alex Wong / Getty Images.)

"We are the gun totin', God fearin,' flag wavin' Americans who are excited to see two crack shots on the ticket with the status quo in their sights,'' Blackburn told the crowd in Minnesota. ""We don't need to elect someone to install an ATM machine on Pennsylvania Avenue that debits your liberty to fund wasteful programs.''

"I think many would appreciate seeing a much more civil tone here in Washington,'' she said today, at a far less emotional forum than the convention or TEA Parties.

"People are very concerned that we are compromising our freedom because we are accruing so much debt... and we don't have the desire, or the political will, to stop this spending,'' Blackburn said today. "Most Americans are just tired of the rhetoric that seems to swirl around itself,'' Blackburn said today. "The expectations of the American public have not been managed or fulfilled.''

Asked about a potential restoration of Republican control of the House, the Republican from Tennessee said:

"It is going to be important that we lay out an orderly process... The American people want to see jobs-growth. What they want is for leaders to define how they're going to do this... ''

What happens if Republicans take back the House? How much of the agenda becomes a question of dismantling what's been donesuch as health care, or the economic stimulus?

"What the American people want to see is, No. 1, not so many penalties and punishments being put in place,'' she said.

One of the keys to jobs-growth is examining the tax code, and making sure that the tax cuts of 2001 and '03 don't expire, she said. "Looking at taxes and regulation, that is one thing that unites all Republicans.''

Advocates Press Congress To Pass Food Safety

Advocates for food safety legislation are pushing hard for Senate action on a food safety bill, releasing reports on the danger of foodborne illness in children and the long-term effects on health.