Person of the Year 2009  —  The story of the year was a weak economy that could have been much, much weaker.  Thank the man who runs the Federal Reserve, our mild-mannered economic overlord  —  Ben Bernanke  —  A bald man with a gray beard and tired eyes is sitting in his oversize Washington office, talking about the economy.

Nelson: 'I'm not on the bill'  —  The White House meeting Tuesday between President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats has raised expectations that they have nailed down 60 votes for the health care bill.  —  But as he prepared to leave for the White House with other senators, Sen. Ben Nelson …

WH Press Sec. Gibbs: Obama Asked Lieberman to Make Concessions, Too  —  Sam Stein reports that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested that the President has been as insistent that Joe Lieberman make concessions for the team as he's been with liberals. … Oh.

SHENANIGANS: SCHUMER HAS A FLIGHT TO FORGET  —  Schumer has a flight to forget  —  Sen. Chuck Schumer loves the sound of his own voice, but it carried a bit farther than he might have liked on the US Airways shuttle from New York to Washington on Sunday.  —  According to a House Republican aide …

Howard Dean: “Kill The Senate Bill”  —  In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.

U.S. gave up billions in tax money in deal for Citigroup's bailout repayment  —  Deal made to recover bailout Firms exempted from rule when U.S. sells its stake  —  The federal government quietly agreed to forgo billions of dollars in potential tax payments from Citigroup as part …

Obama wrote a personal letter to North Korea's Kim Jong Il  —  President Obama has written a personal letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that was delivered by the administration's special envoy for North Korea during a visit to Pyongyang last week.  —  The existence of the letter …

WaPo/ABC poll: Obama hits new lows on health care, overall approval rating  —  His numbers are down across the board since last month, so technically there's a trend here.  But not really.  The problem with WaPo's polls is that they've been using samples that skew overwhelmingly Democratic …

Mystery as Lockerbie bomber goes missing from home and hospital  —  Mystery surrounded the Lockerbie bomber last night after he could not be reached at his home or in hospital.  —  Libyan officials could say nothing about the whereabouts of Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, and his Scottish monitors could not contact him by telephone.

A bailout for insurers?  —  There's an argument on the left that the health-care bill represents a “bailout” to the insurance companies.  Matt Yglesias puts this in the proper context: … To put this a bit more sharply, if I could construct a system in which insurers spent 90 percent …

Chaos at climate conference  —  COPENHAGEN — The Copenhagen climate change conference appeared to be imploding from within and exploding from without on Wednesday.  —  Police fired tear gas, brandished batons and detained more than 200 protesters who tried to push through the security cordon around …

Justice Department restrains lawyers in Panther probe  —  Rights panel subpoenas blocked  —  The Justice Department has told the federal attorneys who filed a civil complaint against the New Black Panther Party for disrupting a Philadelphia polling place last year not to cooperate …

President Obama writes a new health reform prescription  —  On the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to take on the drug industry by allowing Americans to import cheaper prescription medicine.  “We'll tell the pharmaceutical companies ‘thanks, but no, thanks’ for the overpriced drugs …

Hillary Clinton Admits Obama's Iranian Policy Is Also a Failure (Video)  —  What a complete and utter shock.  —  Who would have guessed this?  —  Hillary Clinton admitted today that Barack Obama's Iranian policy of extending a hand to the evil Iranian regime has produced nothing- Nada- Zilch.

President to Appear on WWE Special  —  President Barack Obama has agreed to deliver a taped holiday message to the troops on NBC's “WWE Tribute to the Troops” special.  —  The special chronicles the three days that the WWE Superstars and Divas spent visiting military bases and features …

www.jihad.com  —  Let's not fool ourselves.  Whatever threat the real Afghanistan poses to U.S. national security, the “Virtual Afghanistan” now poses just as big a threat.  The Virtual Afghanistan is the network of hundreds of jihadist Web sites that inspire, train, educate and recruit young Muslims …

The Case for Optimism on the Economy  —  The credit markets are healing and net job creation may be only a month or two away.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  The U.S. economy is digging itself out of a deep hole.  You have probably heard a lot of doom and gloom lately …