Obama

This new Rasmussen Reports poll is going to encourage Republicans who are already running on a 2010 promise to cancel whatever stimulus spending they can.
The survey found 62 percent of voters say tax cuts will create jobs and fight unemployment. Only 21 percent say spending can do that. This cuts against the long-standing economic theories [...]

It was once the case that the American and Afghan Presidents shared a certain bond. It was a cordial relationship, even warm, begun by contingency and entrenched by videoconference. But the two men’s ties did not translate into similarly deep U.S.-Afghanistan relationship, and so governance, prosperity and security all deteriorated, and Afghans and Americans died [...]

Well-known Israel expert Sarah Palin criticizes President Obama’s criticism of Israeli settlement expansion (most recently over Gilo):
“I disagree with the Obama administration on that,” Palin told Walters. “I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people [...]

The Washington Post reports that President Obama said yesterday that the U.S. detention facility will remain open past the January 2010 deadline for closure he set during his first days in office.

From Beijing, President Obama says that his imminent announcement of refined Afghanistan strategy will contain some very important details:
“I am very confident that when I announce the decision, the American people will have a lot of clarity about what we’re doing, how we’re going to succeed, how much this thing is going to cost,” Mr. [...]

TWI legal reporter Daphne Eviatar appeared earlier today on MSNBC’s “Morning Meeting” alongside NBC terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann and former Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) to discuss the proposal to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to a prison in Thomson, Ill. Video after the jump.

Greg Craig announced his departure as White House counsel on Friday, and you can Google for yourself all the Internet-dispersed acrimony and recriminations that his vexed tenure has inspired. This, however, via Marcy Wheeler, is news to me. Marc Ambinder:
The White House was also dissatisfied with Craig’s handling of political appointments, believing that Craig should [...]

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, just said on the Senate floor that he will vote against cloture on the nomination of David Hamilton, the district court judge in Indiana nominated to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Sessions earlier wrote a letter to his colleagues urging them to oppose [...]

The Dow might be on the rebound, but there’s little evidence that the fortunes are trickling down to the lowest-income families in the country. Nearly 15 percent of American families had trouble putting food on the table at some point last year — the highest rate since the government began surveying hunger 14 years ago, [...]

Faced with the reality that reaching a global, binding climate treaty at Copenhagen next month may be next to impossible, world leaders announced yesterday that they were scaling back their ambitions for Copenhagen and putting off a comprehensive treaty until at least next year. The reaction so far? Cheers from across the political spectrum.
Marc Morano, [...]