Sarah Palin vs. Barack Obama: The approval gap silently shrinks to a few points  —  Not that it matters politically because obviously she's a female Republican dunce and he's a male Democrat genius.  —  But Sarah Palin's poll numbers are strengthening.  —  And President Obama's are sliding.

Democrats Step Up Push for Votes on Health Care  —  WASHINGTON — Anxious that Saturday's party-line Senate vote to open debate on a health care overhaul gives them little maneuvering room, Obama administration officials and their Congressional allies are stepping up overtures …

Dennis Moore won't seek re-election  —  U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, a Democrat who confounded the GOP by winning six consecutive elections in a heavily Republican district, will not seek re-election next year, key Democrats said Sunday.  —  Moore, who represented Johnson, Wyandotte and a portion …

Patient trapped in a 23-year ‘coma’ was conscious all along  —  A man thought by doctors to be in a vegetative state for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time, it was revealed last night.  —  Student Rom Houben was misdiagnosed after a car crash left him totally paralysed.

Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government  —  WASHINGTON — The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.'s on terms that seem too good to be true.  —  But that happy situation, aided by ultralow interest rates, may not last much longer.

Obama's Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage  —  When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy.  His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it's not working.  A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming.

Chris Matthews Shocker: Obama Making ‘Carteresque’ Mistakes  —  Chris Matthews appears to have lost that loving feeling for Barack Obama.  —  On “The Chris Matthews Show” Sunday, the once smitten MSNBCer called some of Obama's recent mistakes “Carteresque”:

EXCLUSIVE: Top Dem Threatens War Surtax if Obama Commits More Afghan.  Troops  —  Rep. Obey Warns President Obama He Will Ask Taxpayers to Pay for War, Should More Troops Be Sent  —  The powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has a stark message for President Obama about Afghanistan …

Microsoft and News Corp eye web pact  —  By Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles, Richard Waters in San Francisco and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York  —  Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company's being paid to “de-index” …

New documents: White House scrambled to justify AmeriCorps firing after the fact  —  Just hours after Sen. Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa released a report Friday on their investigation into the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin, the Obama White House gave …

The Phantom Menace  —  A funny thing happened on the way to a new New Deal.  A year ago, the only thing we had to fear was fear itself; today, the reigning doctrine in Washington appears to be “Be afraid.  Be very afraid.”  —  What happened?  To be sure, “centrists” in the Senate have hobbled efforts to rescue the economy.

The White House's climate conundrum  —  Health care reform remains the focal point of legislative policymaking in Washington.  And that may not change for a while.  Nobody thought the current debate would be easy or fast.  But everyone agrees it has extracted nearly all the oxygen out of the Capitol and taken longer than expected.

Existing-Home Sales Record Another Big Gain, Inventories Continue to Shrink  —  Driven by the first-time buyer tax credit, existing-home sales showed another big gain in October with a strong uptrend established over the past seven months, while inventories continue to decline, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Cuomo Took Campaign Cash From Lawyers With Matters Before Him  —  Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's campaign fund took tens of thousands of dollars from law firms representing clients his office investigated or accused of wrongdoing, state records show.

The indelible whiteness of MSNBC  —  MSNBC host Chris Matthews, MSNBC reporter Norah O'Donnell, and MSNBC guest Joan Walsh shamelessly played the race card against Sarah Palin and her book-buying audience last week.  —  In Michigan, O'Donnell smugly noted that Palin's fans were “largely white — almost no minorities in this crowd.”

Copenhagen will fail - and quite right too  —  Even if the science was reliable (which it isn't), we should not force the world's poorest countries to cut carbon emissions  —  Exactly a fortnight from today, the United Nations climate change conference opens in Copenhagen.

Lawyer: 9/11 Defendants Will Tell Jury ‘Why They Did It’  —  NEW YORK — The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday.

At U, future teachers may be reeducated  —  They must denounce exclusionary biases and embrace the vision.  (Or else.)  —  Do you believe in the American dream — the idea that in this country, hardworking people of every race, color and creed can get ahead on their own merits?

HATE CRIME  —  New Stats and a New Law  —  Hate crime has been much in the news lately, with an expansive new law put on the books just last month.  Today, we're releasing our latest annual statistics on the extent of bias-fueled crime across the country, which we hope will contribute …