Poll: Obama holds edge over GOP hopefuls  —  CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.  —  President Obama holds a significant lead over each of his potential Republican opponents in the general election …

Media Matters memo called for hiring private investigators ‘to look into the personal lives’ of Fox employees  —  A little after 1 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2009, Karl Frisch emailed a memo to his bosses, Media Matters for America founder David Brock and president Eric Burns.

Preschooler's Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria “Nuggets”  —  State agent inspects sack lunches, forces preschoolers to purchase cafeteria food instead  —  RAEFORD — A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told …

CPAC: Not Quite Like the Media Matters Communications Room.  But Still, Grow Up.  —  UPDATE: Melissa Clouthier has taken on the task of writing the same point about the young women, too many of whom were even more scantily clad than some of Fox News hosts.  —  Stephen Glass was a fabulist.

When STDs Are Untreatable  —  One of the first places that penicillin ended up being used was to cure the rampant STD infections among US troops.  The infections were a serious problem for armies in the pre-antibiotic era, which produced some pretty amazing propaganda aimed at persuading soldiers …

Pressure mounting for GOP caucus reconsideration  —  AUGUSTA, Maine — Pressure is on the Maine Republican Party to reconsider its weekend declaration that Mitt Romney won the state's caucuses.  —  The Maine GOP announced Saturday that Romney narrowly edged Ron Paul, 39 percent to 36 percent …

People Are Human  —  David Brooks is unhappy with the turn the conversation over the white working class has taken; that's his right, although I think he's caricaturing my position.  But I do want to make a point about the nature of social explanation.  —  David says, … True enough.

Oliver Stone's son converts to Islam in Iran  —  US filmmaker Sean Stone, son of Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone, converted to Islam on Tuesday in Iran, where he is making a documentary, he told AFP.  —  “The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with.

Payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits: Congress nears deal  —  House and Senate leaders are nearing a sweeping deal on jobless benefits, the payroll tax cut and the Medicare reimbursement rate for physicians, according to several sources familiar with the talks.

Facing objections from left and right, Boehner splits up transportation bill  —  Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday moved to split up a major House transportation bill as Republicans looked to smooth its passage over objections from the right and left.

Christie's Valentines Message To Gays In New Jersey: Your Marriages Are ‘A Good Bunch Of Theater’  —  New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R) described yesterday's vote in favor of marriage equality in the state Senate as “a good bunch of theater” and predicted that the legislature …

Obama's epic blunder on birth-control mandate  —  Before Barack Obama can defeat his opponents, he must first be rescued from his friends.  —  Some of them are now suggesting that his contraceptive mandate on religious institutions was a skilled political stratagem.

Despite birth control controversy, Obama suffers no erosion among Catholics  —  Since the birth control controversy broke, it has been an article of faith among even some neutral commentators that the battle would cause Obama to lose crucial support among Catholic swing voters.

Fox News ‘course correction’ rankles some  —  As a white, male, middle-aged conservative talk radio host from Virginia, John Fredericks is something close to the Platonic ideal of a Fox News fan.  —  And until last year, he was one.  But then Fox's treatment of the Republican primary race …

LA Mayor Villaraigosa to chair Democratic convention  —  Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) will chair the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. in September, a Democratic source confirmed.  —  The post will give Villaraigosa, a rising star in the Democratic party …

The George Washington Candidate  —  For a time, it looked as though Newt Gingrich would be the Romney alternative that the religious right and Tea Partiers would coalesce around.  Now Rick Santorum has taken that spot after a string of victories in primaries last week and a huge rise in national polls.

Exclusive: Yahoo Asia Deal Talks Off for Now  —  According to sources close to the situation, the discussions between Yahoo and its Asian partners have hit a potentially deal-breaking impasse over the efficacy of the centerpiece of the complex negotiations — a cash-rich split-off — and several other issues.

California's high-income taxpayers dropped sharply  —  Gov. Jerry Brown wants to hit California's highest-income taxpayers with billions of dollars in new taxes, and is jousting with other groups with their own tax-the-rich measures over which, if any, will win voter approval.

FIFTY MEDICAL DOCTORS FOR SINGLE PAYER URGE SUPREME COURT TO STRIKE DOWN INDIVIDUAL MANDATE  —  Fifty medical doctors who favor a single payer health insurance system today urged the US Supreme Court to strike down the individual mandate.  —  In a brief filed with the Court …