Clinton gift gaffe: ‘Overcharge’  —  GENEVA — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened her first meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by giving him a present meant to symbolize the Obama administration's vow to “press the reset button” on U.S.-Russia relations.

Michelle Obama serves food to D.C. poor and homeless, but...  First Lady Michelle Obama showed up Thursday as a surprise and welcome volunteer at Miriam's Kitchen, a soup kitchen for homeless poor people not far from the White House.  —  She brought with her some food donated by White House staff.

Obama to Lift Ban on Funding for Embryonic Stem Cell Research  —  President Obama is planning to sign an executive order on Monday rolling back restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, according to sources close to the issue.  —  Although the exact wording …

State high court denies Franken bid for election certificate  —  The Democrat had sought to be seated in the U.S. Senate provisionally while Republican Norm Coleman's lawsuit plays out.  Meanwhile, Franken also is pressing to have that suit dismissed.  —  The Minnesota Supreme Court today ruled …

Judge assails cases doubting Obama's citizenship  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday threw out a lawsuit questioning President Barack Obama's citizenship, lambasting the case as a waste of the court's time and suggesting the plaintiff's attorney may have to compensate the president's lawyer.

‘Obama Bear Market’ Punishes Investors as Dow Slumps  —  President Barack Obama now has the distinction of presiding over his own bear market.  —  The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 20 percent since Inauguration Day, the fastest drop under a newly elected president in at least 90 years …

Tongue-tied Clinton gets warm EU welcome  —  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts' names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe's.  —  Clinton has set herself a grueling pace …

Should Geithner go?  —  Henry Blodget thinks it is time for Timothy Geithner to go.  So far, Geithner's performance has been shockingly unimpressive.  It's not as if he's walking into the crisis anew; he's been the head of the New York Fed for years, and dealing with these issues from the very beginning.

A fight I didn't intend to get into: Chas Freeman  —  I have never met Chas Freeman, the man whose reported selection as head of the National Intelligence Council has drawn such criticism, including from my colleague Jeffrey Goldberg.  Not having had a chance to assess him first hand …

Limbaugh: My Ratings are Way, Way Up  —  One side effect of the Democratic campaign against Rush Limbaugh has been to increase — dramatically increase — the talk show host's ratings.  This morning I asked Rush if he had any numbers he could share on just what effect the increased visibility has had on his business.

EFCA Battle Begins: Senate Hearing Set For Tuesday  —  The Senate health committee is set to host the first hearings of the legislative session on the Employee Free Choice Act this Tuesday, a union official says.  It's the truest indication yet that Democrats in Congress are willing to plow forward with the hotly contested measure.

How to Make Cap-and-Trade Into a Bad Joke  —  Via Gristmill, I see that Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources committee, has decided to preemptively surrender on global warming: … There are lots of bells and whistles that you can add to a cap-and-trade plan …

Obama Lobbyist Policy Doing More Harm Than Good  —  Ryan Grim has an excellent story in The Huffington Post spelling out in some detail what's been a mounting problem with the Obama administration—the ban on lobbyists is having perverse consequences for staffing:

Drug Legalization Isn't the Answer  —  Countries that have experimented with a permissive approach have always turned back.  —  Since 2001 the number of young people using illegal drugs has dropped by 900,000 to about 2.7 million.  This drop is an important development for all the obvious reasons, plus one.

CHAVEZ CALLS ON OBAMA TO FOLLOW PATH OF SOCIALISM  —  Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday called upon US President Barack Obama to follow the path to socialism, which he termed as the “only” way out of the global recession.  “Come with us, align yourself, come with us on the road to socialism.

Democrats blast Limbaugh for comment on Kennedy  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - A Democratic official rebuked conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh on Friday for suggesting a health care proposal will be named in memory of Sen. Edward Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer.

Could St. Louis lose its Catholic hospitals under new federal abortion legislation?  —  A proposed bill promising major changes in the U.S. abortion landscape has Roman Catholic bishops threatening to close Catholic hospitals if the Democratic Congress and White House make it law.

The Fiscal Impact of Winding Down a War  —  The President is committed to responsibly winding the war.  I don't do foreign policy, but I can tell you this: ending wars saves money - and so the Administration's budget includes savings from ramping down overseas military operations over time.

Card: Health Care Is A ‘Want,’ Not A ‘Need’ — 'Don't Have The Government Fund It'  —  During the White House's health care summit yesterday, President Obama said that “there are those who say we should defer health care reform once again” because they claim “that at a time of economic crisis …

Roubini Says Recession May Continue Until End of 2010  —  The global recession may continue until the end of 2010 as the response by governments to rectify it is “too little, too late,” said Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted the financial crisis.

Is Obama responsible for Wall Street's meltdown?  —  “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer.  —  Is Obama responsible for the meltdown of the Dow?  The consistently wrongheaded Wall Street Journal's editorial page says so, as does Republican Fox News, CNN's reliably demagogic Lou Dobbs, and now CNBC …

Battling Obama by ‘Going Galt’  —  A protester at the Chicago Tea Party on February 27 references Ayn Rand's novel.  (Flickr: swyngarden)  —  “Do you ever wonder,” wrote Dr. Helen Smith, “after dealing with all that is going on with the economy and the upcoming election, if it's getting to be time to ‘go John Galt?’”

Al-Marri detention case ended  —  The Supreme Court on Friday wiped out a lower court ruling that gave the President the authority to detain indefinitely as terrorism suspects individuals who are living legally in the United States.  The order also approved transfer of Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri …

Pawlenty: GOP has ‘bottomed out’  —  I didn't get to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty in time to quote him in my story on how bad things are for the Republican Party, but spoke to him on the subject today.  —  “It's kind of like asking whether the stock market has bottomed out,” …