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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

LEVERAGE.... Jonathan Cohn wrote a good lay-of-the-land piece last night on the state of the health care reform fight, noting, among other things, the “unambiguous.” “unyielding,” and “obstinate” efforts of center-right Democrats undermine the Senate bill.  —  But Cohn's point about reform's champions is the one I keep mulling over.

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 …

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.”

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 …

BREAKING: San Diego ACORN Document Dump Scandal  —  On October 1st, 2009 California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced that an investigation had been opened into ACORN's activities in California, resulting from undercover videos showing employees seemingly offering to assist …

Lord Lawson calls for public inquiry into UEA global warming data ‘manipulation’  —  Lord Lawson, the former chancellor, has called for an independent inquiry into claims that leading climate change scientists manipulated data to strengthen the case for man-made global warming.

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®.

Low Tea Party moment symbolic of muddy week  —  As a journalist covering Chicago politics, verifying information is like climbing a mountain of sand.  With each step you take, the deeper you sink.  —  Last week while researching claims from a local Tea Party activist …

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.

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.

Robert J. Samuelson on the health bill's burdens for the young  —  One of our long-running political stories is the economic assault on the young by the old.  We have become a society that invests in its past and disfavors the future.  This makes no sense for the nation, but as politics it makes complete sense.

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.

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” …