Approval Ratings Drop for Obama on Health Care, Other Issues  —  Approval Rating on Health Care Falls Below 50 Percent  —  Obama's approval ratings on other front-burner issues, such as the economy and the federal budget deficit, have also slipped over the summer, as rising concern …

D-Day for DeMint  —  Amy Kremer of the National Tea Party Patriots sends on the full audio recording of a conference call I wrote about Friday, on which Sen. Jim DeMint said health care reform could be Obama's “Waterloo.”  The comments have attracted attention, and an attack from President Obama today.

Bailouts could cost U.S. $23 trillion  —  A series of bailouts, bank rescues and other economic lifelines could end up costing the federal government as much as $23 trillion, the U.S. government's watchdog over the effort says - a staggering amount that is nearly double the nation's entire economic output for a year.

2012 Match-ups: Obama, Romney Tied at 45%; Obama 48%, Palin 42%  —  If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Obama and possible Republican nominee Mitt Romney would be all tied up at 45% each, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Fox News Guest Ralph Peters Suggests Taliban Should Kill U.S. Soldier If He Deserted  —  Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who has been captured by the Taliban and appears in a video released this weekend by his captors, “went missing from his base in eastern Afghanistan on June 30.”

Rep. Mike Castle Fends Off the Birthers  —  I got a little friendly fire from my friend and colleague Matt Welch over last week's article on the Obama birth certificate conspiracy.  He took issue with my “contention that the movement ‘dogs Republicans’ (there being so very many other issues that have more bite than a few barkers).”

Poll: Less faith in Obama's economic abilities  —  WASHINGTON — The public's confidence in President Obama's ability to handle the economy is eroding amid concern about higher federal spending and expanding government power, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — a development that could complicate …

President Obama, Democratic Congress's Squandered Stimulus  —  It's not surprising that the much-ballyhooed “economic stimulus” hasn't done much stimulating.  President Obama and his aides argue that it's too early to expect startling results.  They have a point.  A $14 trillion economy won't revive in a nanosecond.

REJECTING THE IDEA OF AN OVERHAUL.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky was on “Meet the Press” yesterday, talking about his opposition to the health care reform proposal(s).  That's fine; he's the opposition leader.  Of course he's going to oppose the majority's agenda.

Race in 2028  —  During last week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Republican senators kept bringing the conversation back to 2001 — the year when Sonia Sotomayor delivered the most famous version of her line about how a “wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences” might outshine a white male judge.

JENNA AND BARBARA BUSH GAVE SECRET SERVICE FITS  —  WHEN it came to protecting Jenna and Barbara Bush, the Secret Service truly had its hands full, with President George W. Bush's wild and crazy daughters doing everything in their power to escape them, a new book reveals.

New iPhone app helps you score pot  —  States that are low on funds are steadily inhaling the idea of taxing the sale of a substance that gets you high.  —  Meanwhile, as if anticipating an uptick in demand, the folks at Apple have approved a new iPhone and iPod Touch app that will allow …

Gay Marriage and the Constitution  —  Why Ted Olson and I are working to overturn California's Proposition 8.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  When I got married in California in 1959 there were almost 20 states where marriage was limited to two people of different sexes and the same race.

Harvard professor Gates arrested at Cambridge home  —  Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in.  The incident raised concerns among …

Video: Mythbusters on Mooner-conspiracies; Update: Surprise — Whoopi's a conspiracy theorist  —  Think of the Moon-landing hoax conspiracy theorists as the original Truthers, 32 years before 9/11.  No matter how much scientific evidence one supplies, no matter how many times the debunkers debunk …

Ross Is Blue Dogs' Bulldog  —  He warned them.  —  Months ago, Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), chairman of the Blue Dogs' health care task force, told House leaders and chairmen they'd better include Blue Dogs in the writing of their health care bill.  But that didn't happen.

An Unworkable Compromise  —  Everyone knows that the Obama administration's demands for a settlement freeze are a huge problem for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition in Jerusalem.  But they are also a great problem for the Abbas/Fayyad government of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

Germany's Spies Refuted the 2007 NIE Report  —  ‘Work on nuclear weapons can be observed in Iran even after 2003’  —  President Obama has committed to trying diplomacy to stop the Iranian bomb.  Time, though, is on the mullahs' side, not least because so much of it was wasted …

Some Good News from Olympia Snowe?  —  As Jonathan reports, this is gut-check time for Democrats.  But there was at least one piece of good news over a tough weekend.  —  Here are some excerpted comments by Senator Olympia Snowe at a Saturday rally, again relayed to me via the good people at Health Care for America Now: