Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton Are 2010's Most Admired  —  Sarah Palin and Oprah Winfrey are closely matched behind Clinton  —  PRINCETON, NJ — President Barack Obama is Americans' Most Admired Man of 2010, substantially ahead of the former presidents, iconic religious leaders, and others who fill out the top 10 list.

Inside The GOP's Plan To Stifle Obama's Executive Branch Power  —  In the nearly two months since the November midterms, the conventional wisdom has centered on the idea that President Obama's agenda will be largely protected from an influx of Republicans by the Senate's arcane rules and his own veto pen.

The Trouble With Liberty  —  Libertarians, of both left and right, haven't been this close to power since 1776.  But do we want to live in their world?  —  Just before Thanksgiving, in an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, Ron Paul called for Congress to be groped.

SARAH PALIN KNOCKS CONSERVATIONISTS  —  It was time to pick up the chainsaw and yell “timber” on Sunday night's episode of “Sarah Palin's Alaska.”  —  While last week's installment had Sarah doing a little of everything, from dog sledding to waitressing —this week, the show focused …

The worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired  —  (updated below)  —  For more than six months, Wired's Senior Editor Kevin Poulsen has possessed — but refuses to publish — the key evidence in one of the year's most significant political stories: the arrest of U.S. Army PFC Bradley Manning for allegedly acting as WikiLeaks' source.

In ‘Daily Show’ Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of Murrow  —  Did the bill pledging federal funds for the health care of 9/11 responders become law in the waning hours of the 111th Congress only because a comedian took it up as a personal cause?  —  And does that make that comedian, Jon Stewart …

Peretz in Exile  —  For decades, Martin Peretz taught at Harvard and presided over The New Republic—a fierce, if controversial, lion among American intellectuals and Zionists.  Now, having been labeled a bigot, taunted at his alma mater, and stripped of his magazine, he has found peace in a place where there is little: Israel.

In tough times, Barbour flies high  —  The Mississippi state plane, a zippy Cessna Citation with a capacity of 12, is a model favored by corporate executives and the wealthy, and its principal passenger, Gov. Haley Barbour, might easily be mistaken for one of them when he arrives …

IF ONLY THOSE ‘LUCKY DUCKIES’ HAD SOME ‘SKIN IN THE GAME’.... It's been about eight years since the far-right Wall Street Journal editorial page came up with the notion of “lucky duckies.”  The label was used to describe the millions of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes because they don't earn enough money.

THE JOBS CRISIS  —  The recession has been over for more than a year now, but so many people are out of work that it doesn't feel like much of a recovery.  In November, the economy added just thirty-nine thousand jobs.  The failure to translate G.D.P. growth into job growth has given us …

Obama applauds Eagles for giving Vick second chance  —  Though the Eagles didn't have a chance to make news on the field tonight, they made some more news off the field.  —  Peter King of NBC reported during Football Night in America that President Barack Obama recently called Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie …

New Science Committee Chair Ralph Hall Praises ‘Tremendous’ BP Spill  —  Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) plans to pursue an aggressive pro-oil agenda as the incoming chair of the House Science and Technology Committee.  In an interview with the Dallas Morning News this month, the …

A Return to Normalcy  —  Over the past three years, American politics has been dominated by a liberal fantasy and a conservative freakout.  —  The fantasy was the idea that Barack Obama, a one-term senator with an appealing biography and a silver tongue, would turn out to be Franklin Delano Roosevelt …

DeMint challenger Alvin Greene to run for S.C. state house  —  Alvin Greene, the unemployed military veteran who won the Democratic nomination to face Sen. Jim DeMint (R) this fall, has filed to run for South Carolina's state house.  —  Greene, who lost to Demint by over 30 percentage points …

Division Wrought by New Tea Partiers  —  Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., who was taken out in his primary by Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell, expresed alarm at the division the movement had caused within his own party.  —  “The Tea Party movement really is quite a bit different …

Liberals fear failure on spending bill may come back to haunt Obama  —  Left-leaning think tanks already disappointed with President Obama's tax-cut compromise fear its political and economic benefits will be wiped out by budget cuts in the next Congress.  —  They argue Obama …

Sotomayor protests court's refusal of appeals  —  WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has set herself apart from colleagues with her fervent statements protesting the majority's refusal to take some appeals, particularly involving prisoners.  —  Each month, the justices spurn hundreds …

Slashing $100 billion: What's first to go?  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Incoming House Speaker John Boehner has made it very clear: When he takes control of the House, slashing the federal budget by $100 billion will be priority number one.  —  The stakes are high.

Updating The RNC Chairman's Race Whip Count  —  More than one-third of Republican National Committee members have declared their support for one of the six contenders seeking the chairmanship, and with just over two weeks to go the race remains wide open.  —  The big movers over the weekend …

ROBIN ASHTON GETS JUSTICE AT JUSTICE.... Looking back, it's still almost hard to believe what went on in Bush's Justice Department.  Monica Goodling, a young graduate of a radical TV preacher's college, made the transition from being an opposition researcher for the Republican National Committee …

Afghan Security Deteriorates  —  U.N. Maps Show Risks in Many Districts Have Increased Despite Troop Surge  —  Internal United Nations maps show a marked deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan during this year's fighting season, countering the Obama administration's optimistic assessments …

Fiscal, Military Hawk Builds GOP Stature  —  Republican Conservatives View Indiana's Pence as Frontline Candidate for 2012 for His Potential to Unite Party Wings  —  Mike Pence (R., Ind.) says he is seriously weighing a run for the White House, but many signs point to him running for Indiana governor in 2012.

In Michigan, a City Pleads for a Bankruptcy Option  —  HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — Leaders of this city met for more than seven hours on a Saturday not long ago, searching for something to cut from a budget that has already been cut, over and over.  —  This time they slashed money for boarding …

CNN Poll: Controversial health care provision unpopular  —  Washington (CNN) - As a crucial component of the nation's new health care law requiring all Americans to buy insurance faces an uncertain fate in federal courts, a new national poll indicates that a majority of Americans oppose …

SC's governor mum on plans, affair as tenure ends  —  BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) — Things are looking up for Gov. Mark Sanford as he prepares to leave office on his own terms more than a year after the international affair that derailed his once-promising political career.  —  He will be replaced by his chosen successor.

The Finite World  —  Oil is back above $90 a barrel.  Copper and cotton have hit record highs.  Wheat and corn prices are way up.  Over all, world commodity prices have risen by a quarter in the past six months.  —  So what's the meaning of this surge?  —  Is it speculation run amok?