Palin says ‘absurd’ not to ponder presidential bid
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sarah Palin says it would be “absurd” for her not to consider running for president in 2012.The former Alaska governor and the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008 says she will run for president if she believes it’s right for the country and right for her family. Palin was asked on “Fox News Sunday” if she knows more today about domestic and foreign affairs than she did two years ago. Her response: “Well, I would hope so.”She says her focus has widened since she was governor of Alaska. Palin says she gets daily briefings by e-mail on domestic and foreign policy issues from advisers in Washington.
Obama: I’m Not Giving Up on Health Reform
Washington – (AP) President Obama on Saturday sought to assure despondent Democrats he would not abandon his commitment to overhauling health care and would work to counter GOP challenges to their congressional dominance.
At its winter meeting, a defiant Democratic Party worked to project a message of strength even as loyalists acknowledged the prospect of several defeats in November. The party that controls the White House typically loses seats during midterm elections at an average rate of 28 net seats. President Bill Clinton, the last Democratic commander in chief, lost control of Congress in his first term and Democrats privately are predicting it could happen again. Read more.
Palin Urges Obama to Take a ‘Do-Over’ on Emanuel, Holder
Sarah Palin said President Obama needs to take a “do-over” on his choice for White House chief of staff, pressing Saturday for Rahm Emanuel’s firing after he used the word “retarded” to lambast a group of Democrats in a strategy session last year.
Emanuel is known for his coarse tongue, but the remarks touched a nerve among disability advocate groups, as well as Palin, when it was reported last week. Emanuel swiftly apologized to Special Olympics head Tim Shriver and then convened a meeting with him and other disability groups at the White House.
But Palin, who has a baby with Down syndrome, told FoxNews.com that Emanuel should still be gone — something she first called for on her Facebook page last week. Read more.
Obama hasn’t ruled out NY trial for 9/11 planner
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Sunday he has not ruled out a New York federal court trial for Sept. 11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but he was taking into account the objections of the city’s mayor and police commissioner.
The Obama administration has come under withering attack, mainly from Republicans, for a decision by his Justice Department to try the terrorist mastermind in a U.S. court near Ground Zero, site of the attack that destroyed New York’s World Trade Center.
Obama said using the traditional judicial method was a “virtue of our system” in which Americans should take pride. Read more.
State Lawmaker Calls for Offshore Drilling, End to Global Warming Commission
RALEIGH — A Davie County Republican is urging fellow state lawmakers to stop wasting time and money on the state’s climate change commission and support energy policy he says will have a tangible impact on the state. Sen. Andrew Brock says the legislature should move to tap the massive natural gas reserve experts believe is sitting off the North Carolina coast.
“This whole thing was based on a false set of principles and false data,” says Brock, referencing e-mails leaked last year from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. Climate-change activists have relied on East Anglia data to justify massive government intervention, including caps on greenhouse gas emissions and limits on fossil fuel consumption. “There’s no credible evidence that supports that all the production by mankind is affecting the global climate.” Read more.
N.C. Democrats dealing with an election year mass exodus
At the Grammys, Oscars and other annual award shows, there’s always a clip showing which big industry stars have departed over the previous year. Forgive voters, especially Democrats, if they feel like they need to watch one of those “dearly departed” clips when they go to the polls in May and November. Because the story this year might not be who is running for elected office, but who isn’t.
As candidate filing season starts on Monday, seven Democratic state senators have already left or announced that this will be their last year in office – and the list includes some important movers and shakers from eastern North Carolina. Read more.
Russian military calls US missile defense a threat
Gen. Nikolai Makarov said that a revised U.S. plan to place missiles in Europe undermines Russia’s national defense, rejecting Obama administration promises that the plan is not directed at his country.
“We view it very negatively, because it could weaken our missile forces,” Makarov, the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, said in televised remarks.
Makarov’s comments are the strongest yet on the revamped U.S. missile effort and signal potential new obstacles to an agreement on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that expired Dec. 5. Read more.
Winners will get to draw the map
RALEIGH – The 2010 political season formally opened Monday, with the next nine months potentially having an outsized influence on Tar Heel politics for the next decade. Of all the elections that will be held – from the marquee U.S. Senate race to courthouse contests – none will be more closely watched than the 170 seats of the state legislature.
That is because the legislature, as required by the U.S. Constitution, will draw new district maps for the legislature and for Congress in 2011 based on the census that will be conducted this year. Whether those maps are drawn by Democrats or Republicans – or jointly by both parties – could go a long way in deciding who holds power in Raleigh and who goes to Washington. Read more.
NY governor says he’ll step aside only ‘in a box’
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – New York Gov. David Paterson, defying calls from even fellow Democrats to drop out of the race for a full term, said Tuesday that he would leave only if the voters turned him out through the ballot box, or he’s carried out “in a box.” Paterson spoke to reporters after several days of rumors sweeping the state Capitol about carousing in the governor’s mansion, all of which Paterson strongly denied.
A few months after Paterson took over from his predecessor, who resigned in a prostitution scandal, his popularity plummeted and many Democrats voiced their preference that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo run for governor when Paterson’s term is up. Read more.
Alabama poll: Mike Huckabee is 2012 front-runner
In a reminder of his strength with social conservatives, Mike Huckabee leads his nearest GOP competitor by 10 percentage points, according to a new poll of Alabama Republicans.
Thirty-three percent of Alabama Republicans polled support the former Arkansas governor for the 2012 presidential nomination, while 23 percent said they would back Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee. The next closest Republican to Huckabee and Palin is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who takes 12 percent of the vote. Read more.
Only 8 percent say incumbents should be reelected
A stunning 8 percent of Americans believe members of Congress should be reelected, a staggering indictment of the legislative branch as Democrats prepare to defend their majority in the midterm elections. Eighty-one percent of people surveyed in a New York Times poll believe “it’s time to give new people a chance” to serve in Congress, the worst assessment of Congress since the newspaper began polling on this question in 1992.
But the 8 percent figure is staggering. Republicans see it as a reason to throw Democrats out of Congress, while Democrats want to blame Republican obstruction for the overwhelmingly negative feelings reflected in the poll. Read more.
Obama, Republicans spar over starting point for health care summit
Washington (CNN) — President Obama said Tuesday his televised health care summit with Republican leaders on February 25 should involve true give-and-take negotiations instead of mere “political theater.” In a rare appearance at the daily White House media briefing, Obama said he wants the meeting — which also will include health care experts — to “establish some common facts” on the health care issue and reach agreement on the most pressing health care problems facing the country.
To signal his willingness to compromise, Obama said he would consider a Republican push to include limits on medical malpractice lawsuits in a health care bill if the proposal can be shown to truly reduce overall health care costs. The president acknowledged the issue could “make my party uncomfortable,” an apparent nod to traditional Democratic support among trial lawyers who oppose such limits. Read more.
Kennedy won’t seek re-election, marking end of era
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s decision not to seek re-election will leave Washington without a Kennedy in political office for the first time in more than 60 years. The Rhode Island Democrat’s term ends early next year but he says in a television message viewed by The Associated Press on Thursday that his life is “taking a new direction” and he will not seek a ninth term. The video was provided to the AP by Kennedy’s congressional office.
The 42-year-old son of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy does not give a reason for the decision but says it has been a difficult few years for many people and he mentions the death in August of his father. Read more.
Obama Poll Results 2/12/10
- In your opinion, is President Obama governing only to please the far left, or is he governing for the betterment of all Americans?
- just to please the left (58%, 262 Votes)
- neither (29%, 129 Votes)
- to better all Americans’ lives (12%, 52 Votes)
- both (1%, 9 Votes)
- Total Voters: 452 WakeUpAmerica.com Online Poll
Family feud: Nancy Pelosi at odds with President Obama
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s increasingly public disagreements with President Barack Obama are a reflection of something deeper: the seething resentment some Democrats feel over what they see as cavalier treatment from a wounded White House.
For months, the California lawmaker has been pushing Obama hard in private while praising him in public. But now she’s being more open in her criticism, in part because she feels the White House was wrong — in the wake of the Democrats’ loss in Massachusetts — to push the Senate health care bill on the House when she knew there was no way it would pass.
Earlier this month, Pelosi criticized the president’s State of the Union call to exempt defense spending from a budget freeze. And in a White House meeting with leaders of both parties this week, she questioned the effectiveness of his plan to give small businesses tax breaks to hire workers. Read more.
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