Obama's Economic Circle Keeps Tensions High  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama was getting his daily economic briefing one recent morning when a fly distracted him.  The president swatted and missed, just as the pest buzzed near the shoes of Lawrence H. Summers, the chief White House economic adviser.

Palin versus GOP  —  Sarah Palin's on-again, off-again appearance at Monday night's gala GOP fundraising dinner is off — again.  —  After being invited — for a second time — to speak to the annual joint fundraiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National …

The Grand Unification Theory of Sucking  —  Reading Drudge can be so entertaining.  Or educational.  Edutational?  Anyway, check out this series of headlines on your right, presented by Drudge without context.  —  The media critic's job is to provide context, so here we go.

Understanding the Kennedy health care bill  —  Over the weekend a draft of Senator Kennedy's (D-MA) health care bill leaked.  After playing with Adobe Acrobat, here is the text of the draft Kennedy bill as a text file (173 K), and as a single Acrobat file (3.4 MB).  Update: I fixed the broken link to the PDF.

‘TOLD YA SO’  —  Sarah Palin hits FOXNEWS tonight for the big ‘Told Ya So’ interview, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.  —  As President Obama vows to spend the ‘stimulus’ faster, Governor Palin tells host Sean Hannity: ‘You gotta quit digging that hole!’  —  HANNITY: What do you make of - look at the state of the economy now...

Sotomayor and the Politics of Race  —  Americans thought they were electing a president who would transcend grievance.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court points to a dilemma that will likely plague his presidency: How does a …

N. Korea Convicts 2 U.S. Journalists  —  A North Korean court sentenced two U.S. journalists to 12 years in a labor camp Monday, as the government of Kim Jong Il continued to ratchet up tension with the United States and its neighbors.  —  Laura Ling and Euna Lee, television reporters detained …

Source: Booby-trapped horses used in failed terror attack  —  Article's topics: Gaza Strip, IDF, Palestinians  —  Under the cover of morning fog, a group of around 10 Palestinian gunmen armed with “huge amounts of explosives” launched a failed Gaza border assault at the Karni Crossing on Monday …

Your Ticking Time Bomb Scenario  —  So when do we get to start torturing this guy: … Since there is no doubt that we have a history of anti-abortion domestic terrorism, and since we know that evangelicals already support torture for everyone, when do we get to start waterboarding this guy?

Scandal could derail Democratic dreams  —  The Republican Party's fall from dominance in 2002 to utter collapse in 2008 is mostly attributed to the GOP either being too conservative or not conservative enough.  —  But Republicans were mostly incoherent on domestic policy during their six-year ride to the bottom.

In Iraq, Colbert Does His Shtick for the Troops  —  CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — It was Sunday night in Baghdad, and President Obama was ordering Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of the American troops here, to shave Stephen Colbert's head.  (Not to give everything away, but the general is not as brutal …

The 15 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media  —  After doing The 10 Hottest Liberal Women In Politics last week, I thought that in order to be fair, I should feature the women on the Right as well.  So, in the spirit of the Hill's 50 Most Beautiful lists, I present to you “The 15 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media.”

EXCLUSIVE: Recently Released Gitmo Detainee Talks to ABC News  —  Held Seven Years, Former Aid Worker Tells ABC News He Was Tortured  —  For 7½ years, Lakhdar Boumediene was known simply by a number: “10005.”  —  These were the digits assigned to him when he arrived at the detention center …

Obama Rated Highest as Person, Lowest on Deficit, Spending  —  Obama doing better than Bush and Clinton at similar points in their first year in office  —  PRINCETON, NJ — While 67% of Americans view President Barack Obama favorably, his overall job approval rating and his ratings on specific areas are less positive.

U.S. to Propose Wider Oversight of Compensation  —  The Obama administration plans to require banks and corporations that have received two rounds of federal bailouts to submit any major executive pay changes for approval by a new federal official who will monitor pay, according to two government officials.

Has The Obama Administration's Banking Plan Failed?  —  When Tim Geithner's Public-Private Investment Partnership (PPIP) plan was announced, it dominated commentary for a solid week.  It was big, complicated, controversial, and, it seemed, important.  It was the center of the administration's …

Obama's Health Cost Illusion  —  The President's main case for reform is rooted in false claims and little evidence.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  The main White House argument for health-care reform goes something like this: If we spend now on a hugely expensive new insurance program …

Poll: Obama's policies bad for Israel  —  Article's topics: Barack Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Us-israel Relations  —  A majority of Israelis believe that the Middle East policies of US President Barack Obama are not good for the Jewish state, according to a Dahaf Institute poll taken ahead of Obama's speech to the Muslim world.

Obama's Top Targeter Bullish on Montana and Worried About Gingrich; Predicts Deeds Win Tomorrow  —  Ken Strasma, recognizable to many 538 readers as Barack Obama's national targeting director in 2008, is the first participant in a new series of interviews we will be conducting with consultants …