Top Items:

Obama's Speech to the United Nations General Assembly — Following is a text of President Obama's speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, as released by the White House. — Good morning. Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen …
RELATED:

The UN loves Barack Obama because he is weak — It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits Barack Obama when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly today, writes Nile Gardiner. — Barack Obama's Gallup approval rating of 52 percent may well be lower at this stage …

Obama's time warp: The U.S. is still the bad guy — Senior Political Analyst — In the early 1980s, while planning a vacation in Latin America, I went to bookstores to find histories of the region. All I could find were Marxist tracts arguing that “the people” were exploited …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, OpenMarket.org, Washington Times, Pundit & Pundette, alicublog and GayPatriot

Bolton: ‘A Post-American Speech By Our First Post-American President’ — By: Robert Costa — Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton tells NRO that President Obama's address to the U.N. was “a post-American speech by our first post-American president.

Obama Considers Strategy Shift in Afghan War — WASHINGTON — President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Politico, Associated Press, The Moderate Voice, Neptunus Lex, BLACKFIVE, The League of Ordinary …, Obsidian Wings, JustOneMinute, The Washington Independent, The Plum Line, Commentary, DownWithTyranny!, EU Referendum, The Page, The Atlanticist, D-Day, Wonk Room, Conservative Dallas, Mudville Gazette, Laura Rozen's Blog, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Newshoggers.com, Taylor Marsh, The Note, Think Progress, Jules Crittenden, MyDD, Outside The Beltway, Below The Beltway, Informed Comment, Cato @ Liberty, marbury, ATTACKERMAN and Reuters
RELATED:

At Pentagon's Request, Washington Post Delayed Story on Afghanistan Report — To Bob Woodward, it was the modern-day equivalent of the Pentagon Papers. But to Obama administration officials, the classified assessment of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, if disclosed by The Washington Post …


Sen. Roberts: We Need To Give Health Insurance Lobbyists ‘At Least 72 Hours’ To Read The Bill — During the Senate Finance Committee's mark-up session of the health care reform bill today, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) — who has had a hard time staying awake during these meetings …
RELATED:

Palin Speaks to Investors in Hong Kong — HONG KONG — Sarah Palin, in what was billed as her first speech overseas, spoke on Wednesday to Asian bankers, investors and fund managers. — A number of people who heard the speech in a packed a hotel ballroom, which was closed to the media …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Vanity Fair, DailyFinance, Don Surber, RealClearPolitics Video Log, Gawker, Conservatives4Palin.com and Riehl World View
RELATED:

Excerpts of Sarah Palin's Speech to Investors in Hong Kong — Alex Frangos reports from Hong Kong on Sarah Palin's speech. — Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, delivered her first major international speech outside North America Wednesday in Hong Kong at an investor conference.


Carper Publicly Defends Secret PhRMA Pact; Deal Made in Exchange for Support Ads — In a stunning moment during the Senate Finance Committee markup Sen. Tom Carper defended a secret deal that the White House, Baucus, and PhRMA had reached. The White House has long denied the deal.
RELATED:

Did Sen. Tom Carper Just Admit PhRMA and the White House Had a Laws-for-Ads Deal?
Discussion:
Hot Air

STANDING ATHWART HISTORY.... There are plenty of discouraging poll numbers for Democrats that have been released lately, but there's little evidence that Republicans are capitalizing in any meaningful way. The party is still less popular than the Democratic majority, and the GOP is still less trusted …
RELATED:

Kamikaze Obstructionism — You guys like polls, right? … The Republican Party's strategy against health-care reform has been something of a kamikaze mission: destroy the bill through a strategy that also destroys the party, at least in the short-term. The hope is that if they win the war …

Triggering a Democratic Civil War — Media reports and insider buzz make it increasingly clear that key people at the White House have become obsessed with Olympia Snowe on health care, and are willing to do pretty much whatever she demands in order to get her on board.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, TPMDC, Firedoglake, Daily Kos, The Plum Line, Democratic Strategist, Taylor Marsh and AMERICAblog News
RELATED:

Canada to walk out on Ahmadinejad's UN speech — Ahmadinejad warned Western powers it was too late to stop Iran's nuclear programme, amid ... UNITED NATIONS — Canada will boycott Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the United Nations on Wednesday, saying his outbursts about the Holocaust and Israel are “shameful.”
Discussion:
Reuters, CBC News, Moe Lane, Guardian, The Greenroom, Gateway Pundit, Indecision Forever and Weasel Zippers


Glenn Beck, Post-Modern Conservative — Buried in the cross-tabs of the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is a question that takes a temperature reading of Glenn Beck. Beck actually makes out pretty well. While just 24 percent of Americans have a favorable view of him (13 percent strongly so) …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Michael Calderone's Blog, Mediaite, Prairie Weather, CANNONFIRE and Philly.com

New poll: Democrat lead over GOP is smallest in five years; doubts about Obama continue to grow — The new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll asked respondents whether they would prefer to see next year's elections result in a Congress controlled by Democrats or a Congress controlled by Republicans.
RELATED:

ECONOMIC GROWTH VS. DEFICIT REDUCTION.... In the new NBC News …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias

Justice Dept. to Limit Use of State Secrets Privilege — WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is preparing to impose new limits on the government assertion of the state secrets privilege used to block lawsuits for national security reasons. The practice was a major flashpoint in the debate …
RELATED:


GOP Favors Public Option for Property, Not People — Atop the front page of The New York Times today is a color photo of Georgia homes flooded up to their rafters, an image that illustrates how when it comes to insurance our Congress applies two standards, separate and unequal, one for property and a lesser one for people.


Dancing Tom DeLay on Infighting in the ‘Leaderless’ GOP: ‘Even Rush and Hannity Are Doing It’ — LOS ANGELES — Walking out of a restaurant in Los Angeles last week, the former House Majority Leader was stopped by a stranger. — “Aren't you Tom DeLay?” the man asked. — “Yes, I am.”

Khadafy booted from Camp Trump — W'chester foils Trump guest — Unwelcome Libyan thug Moammar Khadafy briefly found a comfy spot to rest his foul head yesterday — at Donald Trump's palatial estate in suburban Westchester. — But town officials in tony Bedford put the kibosh …

Election 2010: Missouri Senate — 2010 Missouri Senate: Blunt 46%, Carnahan 46% — Democrat Robin Carnahan and Republican Roy Blunt are dead even in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey of the hotly contested race for the U.S. Senate in Missouri.
Discussion:
The Hill, Real Clear Politics, Swing State Project, Politics Daily, Scorecard's Blog, TPMDC and Fired Up! Missouri