Sarah Palin headed to Iowa  —  Sarah Palin is making a surprise trip to Iowa this weekend, just in time to catch the political spotlight trained on the Ames straw poll.  —  In an email to supporters Wednesday, Palin said she's accepted an invitation “to meet folks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines this week.”

New CNN Poll: Perry near top of pack in GOP nomination battle  —  Washington (CNN) - As Rick Perry moves closer and closer to a run for the White House, a new national survey indicates that the longtime Texas governor is close to the top of the pack in the hunt for the Republican presidential nomination.

Romney's Pitch to S&P Boasted of Revenue Raisers  —  Former Gov. Mitt Romney boasted this week that when he led Massachusetts, he presided over an increase in the state's bond rating, a contrast to President Barack Obama, who saw Standard & Poor's downgrade U.S. debt.

Poll: Majority of public has lost faith in government ability to fix economy  —  Barely one in four Americans has confidence that the federal government has the ability to fix economic problems, and most share Standard & Poor's indictment of the country's policy-making process, according to a new Washington Post poll.