Dark Dark Dark  —  Barack Obama's grandmother told him to smile more.  Bill Clinton tells the new president to strut more.  —  As the country takes a bullet train to bankruptcy, the last Democratic president urged the current one to “embody” that old American spunk.

Obama's Budget  —  Clearly the big story of the day is the deliberate leakage of Obama budget plans.  The highlights:  — Obama wants the 2013 deficit to be half the size of the 2009 deficit he inhereted.  — The 2010 deficit is going to be large.  — Specifically …

A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage  —  IN politics, as in marriage, moments come along when sensitive compromise can avert a major conflict down the road.  The two of us believe that the issue of same-sex marriage has reached such a point now.  —  We take very different positions on gay marriage.

EPA to Issue Emissions Rules  —  WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's climate czar said Sunday the Environmental Protection Agency would soon issue a rule on regulation of carbon dioxide, finding that it represents a danger to the public.  —  The White House is pressing Congress to draft …

Rahm Emanuel on the job.  —  Rahm Emanuel's office, which is no more than a three-second walk from the Oval Office, is as neat as a Marine barracks.  On his desk, the files and documents, including leatherbound folders from the National Security Council, are precisely arranged, each one parallel with the desk's edge.

The quickest and broadest tax cut ever  —  Two important takeaways from the President's Weekly Address this morning.  —  #1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will start having an impact as soon as a few weeks from now, in the form of the quickest and broadest tax cut in history:

Sen. Feingold's Constitution  —  A simple apology would have sufficed.  Instead, Sen. Russ Feingold has decided to follow his McCain-Feingold evisceration of the First Amendment with Feingold-McCain, more vandalism against the Constitution.  —  The Wisconsin Democrat …

Shelby discusses stimulus bill, other issues  —  To Sen. Richard Shelby, borrowing $787 billion is not good fiscal responsibility.  —  “You can't borrow your way to prosperity,” Shelby said.  “We're the largest debtor in the world.  We're stealing from our grandchildren.”

Swiss party wants to punish U.S. for UBS probe  —  The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country's biggest bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy.  —  The populist SVP, the country's biggest party …

Ex-Paterson Aide to Return for Re-election Bid  —  Charles J. O'Byrne, the former top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson whose resignation amid a tax scandal last year destabilized the administration, will return to help oversee the governor's 2010 re-election campaign, the governor's office said on Saturday.

Should Minnesota lower the drinking age to 18?  —  The argument over the legal drinking age will once again arise in Minnesota, and along with it, issues of states' rights, citizenship, and public safety.  Four members of the state legislature will introduce a bill to lower the age to 18 …