All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

President Obama met Wednesday with his national security team, the latest in his series of meetings on the best way forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This is the eighth in the series of meetings Mr. Obama has had on drafting a new strategy in the turbulent region – a decision that includes how many additional U.S. troops to send to Afghanistan.

Those taking part in today’s meeting include the usual members of the war council: Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen, National Security advisor James Jones, and the top U.S. officials in Afghanistan – Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, who take part in the meeting by way of a secure video teleconference.

Also taking part was Gen. David Petraeus, who, as head of U.S. Central Command, oversees military operations in Afghanistan.

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The American Association for Justice, a group representing trial lawyers, has released a series of web videos designed to make the argument that malpractice litigation is important because medial error is real and can be devastating.

The group, Ben Smith reports, is alarmed that tort reform, long a Republican priority, "may re-emerge as grounds for compromise in the health care negotiations."

The videos feature Americans discussing tragedies that have befallen them because of medical error. The one above tells the story of Blake Fought, a 19-year-old who asphyxiated and died because a nurse improperly removed an IV line.

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Even before President Obama sets foot on Air Force One tomorrow to begin a 9-day trip to Asia, he has traveled to more countries in his first year in office than any of his predecessors.

Since taking office, he has made 7 foreign trips and visited 16 countries, 3 of them twice.

The Asia trip – which takes him to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea – will bring his total to 8 foreign trips and 20 countries.

The only other president to come close to Mr. Obama's first-year-in-office globe-trotting numbers is President George H. W. Bush, who took 7 foreign trips to 14 countries.

His son traveled abroad five times to 11 countries during his first year. President Clinton only did 2 foreign trips to 3 nations in 1993.

Foreign travel by American presidents is a relatively new practice. No sitting U.S. president left the country until Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. He made a single foreign outing: a 3-day visit to Panama in November of that year to inspect construction of the Panama Canal.

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With unemployment now above 10 percent, Senate Democrats are planning to craft a new jobs bill next year, according to a report in The Hill.

Majority Leader Harry Reid said at the Senate Democrats' weekly lunch Tuesday that he is now exploring a job-creation initiative, Sen. Ben Cardin told the newspaper. Cardin said "our caucus will take it up."

What will be in the bill – or when it might be introduced – is not yet known. Sen. Patty Murray , D-Wash., told the Hill that no final decision about legislation has yet been made.

Reid, whose approval rating at home stands at just 32 percent, is among the vulnerable Democrats going into the 2010 midterm election season. The weak economy is working against him, as is the fact that the president's party traditionally loses Congressional seats in midterms. In Nevada, the unemployment rate is 13.5 percent.

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On “Washington Unplugged” Wednesday, Jonathan Weisman, from the Wall Street Journal, said the president’s trip to Asia this week has “kind of snuck up on him but actually there are a lot of issues on the table.”

Weisman noted issues including the new government in Japan, the Singapore conference with Asian countries, his visit to China (“the great banker of the United States”) and the stalled free trade agreement with South Korea.

“This is the test of his vow to engage our enemies as well as our friends,” Weisman said of a potential handshake between President Obama and the Burmese leader in Singapore . “Nobody has talked to the Burmese Junta and this is the president of the United States.”

Moderator and senior White House correspondent Bill Plante mentioned that while the volatile south Asian economy may not be a “sexy” headline grabbing topic, it will front and center next week.

"Washington Unplugged" appears live on CBSNews.com each weekday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Click here to check out previous episodes.

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The antiviral medication Tamiflu is the most commonly prescribed anti-flu medicine, and, as with the H1N1 vaccine, there may not be enough to go around.

In an effort to address anticipated shortages, federal officials released the last of their stockpile of children's Tamiflu at the end of last month, as the New York Times reported; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ordered new shipments of the drug, but they're not scheduled to arrive until January. (The CDC still has millions of doses of adult Tamiflu in its stockpile.)

Tamiflu is manufactured by a Swiss company called Roche Holdings, and the company has a patent on the medicine in the United States through 2016. Kristina Becker, a spokesperson for Roche, said in an interview Tuesday that the company is "confident" that it has the resources to meet demand for the drug.

She said that while supplies of liquid Tamiflu have been spotty in some areas, there are ample supplies of the capsule form of the medication, which can be opened up and effectively turned into liquid medicine through dilution with syrup. She also said there would be more shipments of the liquid version next month.

Roche "ramped up making the capsules at the start of the pandemic because we can make enough medicine for 25 times the number children in the same time it takes to make the liquid for one person," Becker said. "We wanted to be able to make enough medicine for as many people as possible."

Deciding how much Tamiflu is no easy task for Roche; the company says it takes about six to eight months to make Tamiflu.

Enter Dr. Yusuf Hamied, the chairman of a Mumbai-based drug company called Cipla. Cipla has developed a reputation for copying drugs and selling them at cheaper prices, perhaps most notably the AIDS drugs it has sold in Africa.

Earlier this year, Cipla won a court battle in India to produce a generic version of Tamiflu, called Antiflu. The company subsequently got certification from the World Health Organization that Antiflu was as effective as Tamiflu. It began selling it in India and Mexico at a discount from the cost of Tamiflu.

Now the CDC is reportedly signaling it is open to the possibility of importing Antiflu to the United States. (Representatives for the CDC have not yet responded to a request for confirmation.) Doing so would be controversial, since patent rules prohibit a Tamiflu generic coming onto the U.S. market for years.

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A Gallup poll released today gives the Republicans a 48 percent to 44 percent edge over Democrats in a generic congressional ballot if the 2010 elections were held today. The Republicans have been inching closer to the lead after trailing the Democrats by six points in a similar poll conducted last July.

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Updated 2:16 p.m. ET

President Obama spoke in honor of Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery Wednesday morning, vowing to keep "the promises we've made" to those who have served their country.

"America will not let you down," he said. "We will take care of our own."

Before he spoke at the Memorial Amphitheater, Mr. Obama participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns. He was joined at Arlington by first lady Michelle Obama.

"To the members of our armed forces and the veterans who are here today, I am deeply honored and humbled to spend Veterans Day with you in this sacred place, where generations of heroes have come to rest and generations of Americans have come to show their gratitude," the president said.

Photo Essay: Veterans Day 2009

He spoke of his experiences at the memorial service for those killed in the Fort Hood shootings, saying he saw determination in the eyes of the soldiers there, as he has in the eyes of American military personnel around the world.

"In an era where so many acted only in pursuit of narrow self-interests, they've chosen the opposite," said Mr. Obama. "They chose to serve the cause that is greater than self, many even after they knew they'd be sent into harm's way."

The president told veterans, the fallen and their families that "no praise that can truly match the magnitude of your service and your sacrifice."

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Tuesday he would join a Republican filibuster of the Democratic health care bill if he thinks it is a bad bill.

"Faced with a decision about whether or not to move a bill that is bad, I won't vote to move it," Nelson told ABC News. "For sure."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid intends to bring his health care bill before the full Senate next week. After debating the bill, he will need all 60 Democrats in the Senate to vote for "cloture" -- in other words, to stop a Republican filibuster in order to vote on whether to approve the bill. Reid's only other option would be to resort to a process called "reconciliation," which would enable Democrats to bypass a filibuster and get the bill approved with only 51 votes.

Nelson is not the only Democrat who has threatened to vote against cloture. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) has said he would filibuster a bill with a government-run health insurance plan, or public option. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) said on CBSNews.com's Washington Unplugged that he would even block a motion to proceed with debate on the bill if he strongly objected to the legislation.

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The American Medical Association on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling for the government to review its classification of marijuana, in order to ease the way for more research into the use of medical marijuana.

While the AMA, the largest physician's organization in the U.S., explicitly states it does not endorse any current state-based medical marijuana programs or the legalization of marijuana, the move is a significant shift that continues a trend toward support for easing restrictions against the drug.

"Our American Medical Association (AMA) urges that marijuana's status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines," the AMA's statement (PDF) reads. "This should not be viewed as an endorsement of state-based medical cannabis programs, the legalization of marijuana, or that scientific evidence on the therapeutic use of cannabis meets the current standards for a prescription drug product."

Marijuana is currently classified by the federal government as a "Schedule I" controlled substance, the most restrictive of five categories. Schedule I substances are considered to have a high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug. Other drugs in that category include heroin, LSD and PCP. Less restrictive "Schedule II" substances include cocaine and methamphetamine.

Previously, the AMA recommended marijuana remain a Schedule I controlled substance, but it now believes the substance deserves more clinical research.

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