Full text of Obama's speech to Congress and the nation  —  Here is the text of President Obama's first address to a joint session of Congress, as released by the White House moments ago:  —  Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States:

Fox Panel's Verdict On Jindal's Speech: ‘Childish,’ ‘Amateurish,’ ‘Not Exactly Terrific’  —  Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R) response to President Obama's speech tonight received a universal thumbs down from the Fox News panelists, who are traditionally conservatives' most gentle critics:

Full text of Gov. Bobby Jindal's Republican response  —  Here is the full text of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's Republican response to President Obama's address to Congress tonight:  —  Americans Can Do Anything  —  Good evening.  I'm Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana.

Matthews Not Tingly for Jindal  —  Listen closely as Jindal approaches the mic and Matthews let's out an exasperated “oh God” before he even opens his mouth.

A bitter-Tweet night for the GOP  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  As President Barack Obama delivered his unofficial State of the Union address Tuesday night, some Republicans at the Capitol and elsewhere provided harsh reviews by Twitter - at least until they did a 180 to adopt a more respectful tone.

Troubled San Francisco paper in danger of closing  —  San Francisco Chronicle to be sold or closed if owner can't lower expenses dramatically  —  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco Chronicle joined the lengthening list of imperiled newspapers Tuesday as its owner set out to purge …

Officials: Most troops out of Iraq in 18 months  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama plans to remove all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by August 2010, administration officials said Tuesday, ending the war three months later …

OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE PLAN EXPECTS AN INDIVIDUAL MANDATE.  —  I've now been able to confirm with multiple senior administration sources that the health care proposal in Obama's budget will have a mandate.  Sort of.  —  Here's how it will work, according to the officials I've spoken to.

Cali's partisan primaries up for vote  —  Looking for a recession-proof job?  You could hardly do better than a House seat in California.  —  Thanks to neatly gerrymandered districts, the state has one of the most stable congressional delegations in the nation — only two incumbents have lost since 2002.

Killing (or Maiming) a Sacred Cow: Home Mortgage Deductions  —  Edward L. Glaeser is an economics professor at Harvard.  —  The Great Depression provided an opportunity to rethink old policies in a major way.  In the current morass, everything should, once again, be open for debate.

Not a War President  —  What can we learn from the few sentences President Obama devoted to foreign policy in his speech to Congress tonight?  —  The main lesson is how very few the sentences were.  Yes, this was a speech focused on the economy.  But it was also Obama's first address to Congress …

A Starry-Eyed Look at the 2012 Republican Field  —  A long time ago in a galaxy not too far away, I introduced something called the “Planetary Model of Primary Politics”.  It is basically just a fancy way of noting that there are generally two dimensions by which candidates position themselves in Presidential primaries.

Commerce Pick Carries Lengthy China Résumé  —  SEATTLE — Top slots in the Obama administration were filling up fast when Gary Locke was asked by a friend several weeks ago whether he expected to get a job offer from the new president.  —  “He mentioned that he hadn't gotten …

The Region: America, look behind you!  Turn around!  Turn around!  —  America: A freight train is heading your way and you're standing right on the tracks, looking in the wrong direction.  —  Or perhaps it is like a horror film in which the killer sneaks up behind the hapless victim while the movie audience yells: “Turn around!

Polls: Obama Won The Night  —  Instant public surveys on Barack Obama's address before Congress showed, by in large, that the public was incredibly receptive to his speech, regardless of political party.  But that did not hold true for every single study.  —  A CBS News poll …

Senate will advance torture commission  —  Is there a lot America doesn't know about Bush torture policies?  There is, says Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.  “This is going to be big.”  —  Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on Capitol Hill in September.

Mysterious plans  —  I'm trying to be sympathetic to the various plans, or rumors of plans, for bank aid; but I keep not being able to understand either what the plans are, or why they're supposed to work.  And I don't think it's me.  —  So the latest is that we're going to convert preferred stock held …