Dean Prepares To Step Down As DNC Chair  —  After four years at the helm of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean is preparing to relinquish his chairmanship.  —  Dean, who has been serving in the post since 2005, has said in the past that he would serve only one term …

Bush leaving office more unpopular than Nixon  —  CNN Deputy Political Director  —  WASHINGTON DC (CNN) — On the day that President-elect Barack Obama is visiting the White House, a new national poll suggests that the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the most unpopular …

Palin reflects on her run  —  The defeat, the future and the critics are all addressed  —  Gov. Sarah Palin blames the Bush administration for the failure of the McCain-Palin ticket, thinks people need to move on from the so-called “Troopergate” controversy and has no regrets about state per diem …

Obama plans Guantanamo closure, US terror trials  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials …

Franken's Odds of Winning Recount May Be Long — or Short  —  Votes counted in Minnesota's senate race: 2,833,089  —  Votes separating Norm Coleman and Al Franken: 221  —  Determining a candidate's odds of winning a recount is a function of three parameters.

Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Identify Bank Loans  —  Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Obama Weighs Quick Undoing of Bush Policy  —  CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama is poised to move swiftly to reverse actions that President Bush took using executive authority, and his transition team is reviewing limits on stem cell research and the expansion of oil and gas drilling …

Former DNC chief files candidate papers in Va  —  RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe signed papers Monday signaling a possible run for governor next year in Virginia.  —  McAuliffe told The Associated Press he set up a campaign committee …

The Polls Show That Reaganism Is Not Dead  —  Barack Obama won the White House by campaigning against an unpopular incumbent in a time of economic anxiety and lingering foreign policy concerns.  He offered voters an upbeat message, praised the nation as a land of opportunity …

‘NO COHERENT BELIEF SYSTEM’ AND ‘NO LEADERS’.... David Brooks' election analysis has been hit or miss, but his take on the state of the Republican Party on “Face the Nation” yesterday sounded pretty compelling. … He added, “[F]undamentally, the conservative movement failed …

Franklin Delano Obama?  —  Suddenly, everything old is New Deal again.  Reagan is out; F.D.R. is in.  Still, how much guidance does the Roosevelt era really offer for today's world?  —  The answer is, a lot.  But Barack Obama should learn from F.D.R.'s failures as well as from his achievements …

MSNBC Extends Keith Olbermann's Contract  —  Keith Olbermann, the anchor of “Countdown” on MSNBC.  (NBC)  —  Keith Olbermann, the anchor of “Countdown,” will remain at MSNBC through the next presidential election season, the cable news channel announced Monday afternoon.

Biden's new role: Good cop  —  A few days before the election, a Democratic strategist privately worried that a Vice-President Joe Biden was destined for a White House career of dissatisfaction and idle-hands mischief.  —  “You can't just have a guy like him at loose ends, he'd go crazy,” …

The path out of the wilderness  —  History is clear about how political parties emerge from the wilderness.  —  Legendary newspaper columnist James Reston laid down the law more than a half -century ago: “The decisive battleground of American politics lies in the center and cannot be captured …

Afghan Quicksand Awaits Obama  —  The president-elect will face escalating violence, feckless allies, and time that's quickly running out.  —  The Iraq war is over.  Barring the unforeseen, the darkest days are behind, though we are still losing soldiers to low-level fighting with enemies that are true “dead-enders.”