A Republican political hopeful interested in serving as governor of Massachusetts announced Monday he has chosen Richard R. Tisei, an openly gay state legislator, to be his running mate in the 2010 gubernatorial election.
"Want you to be the first to know: I've chosen State Senator Richard Tisei as my running mate," Republican Charles Baker wrote on his Twitter account. "Excited about this team."
In the photo at left, Baker stands to the left of Tisei outside the civic center in Wakefield, Mass.
Baker is the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and a former adviser to two Republican governors. He has known Tisei for years, the Boston Globe reports, and Tisei's years in the state legislature will make up for Baker's limited political experience.
Tisei, who the Globe called an "only-in-Massachusetts character," publicly disclosed his sexuality to the newspaper last week, though it was widely known.
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It's only November, but fears over the H1N1 virus have already hit a fever pitch, with some Americans uneasy about their lack of access to a vaccine that's in relatively short supply.
There are signs, however, that H1N1 may turn out to be less deadly than many feared. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a report last week which shows similarities between H1N1 and other strains circulating in the population since 1988. According to the NIH, healthy adults may have a degree of immunity that can blunt the severity of an H1N1 infection.
Quest Diagnostics, which provides clinical laboratory services globally, also released a report last Friday stating that rates of infection by the H1N1 virus may have peaked in late October due to the impact of H1N1 vaccinations and changes in physician test-ordering practices.
So how bad is this pandemic really turning out to be? Some medical experts are calling for officials to inform the public that, despite the hype, the worst-case scenario has not, and likely will not, come to pass. More...
Former CNN television personality Lou Dobbs has said in recent days he is considering running for public office, and this morning he suggested he would consider a run for the highest office in the country.
"What's so crazy about that?" Dobbs responded when an anchor with Washington's WTOP radio station laughed about the possibility of Dobbs running for president in 2012. Politico's Glenn Thrush has a recording of the radio interview.
Dobbs said that he has had discussions about it and that he is, for the first time, "actually listening to people about politics."
"I don't think I've got the nature for it, but... we've got to do something in this country," Dobbs said. "I think that being in the public arena means you've got to be part of the solution."
Dobbs added that he is reaching out to Latino groups, the Chamber of Commerce and "all of the groups with whom I have been in an ongoing debate... to try to bridge some of these conflicts and try to create solutions."
Latino groups have long charged that Dobbs' show on CNN was racist in its emphasis on illegal immigration and cheered his departure from CNN.
President Obama's bow to Japan's Emperor Akihito in Tokyo earlier this month ignited anger from some conservatives who complained, in the words of blogger Donald Douglass, that the United States "now willingly prostrates itself before the rest of the world."
"Obama's attitude was, this is an elderly gentleman in a country where this kind of greeting is customary," said the official. "It does not seem extraordinary to show this kind of gesture to him." More...
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is keeping quiet on her plans for 2012, but recent polls and political analysis suggest it's too soon to count her out as a political heavyweight.
Palin has drummed up a great deal of media attention on her nationwide book tour, which takes the former GOP vice presidential candidate to Iowa next month. A new poll out of the state -- a key state in presidential primaries -- shows that Republicans in the state highly approve of Palin.
As many as 68 percent of Iowa Republicans view Palin favorably, according to the Des Moines Register's Iowa poll. Palin ranked higher than former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who won 66 percent of Iowa Republicans' approval. She also beat out former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is viewed favorably by 58 percent of the state's GOP voters.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa caucuses in his bid for the GOP presidential nomination, still has higher approval ratings than Palin at 70 percent, according to the poll. A comparison with Huckabee's numbers also reveal Palin's weaknesses. Twice as many Iowa Republicans hold an unfavorable view of Palin as they do of Huckabee. Meanwhile, moderates view Huckabee more than twice as favorably as Palin.
Fifty-five percent of all Iowa residents, including Democrats, hold an unfavorable opinion of Palin, according to the poll, while only 8 percent say they are unsure about her.
While it could appear that voters have already formed an opinion about the former governor, her book tour may be boosting her popularity. Palin's popularity numbers have edged up in national polls in recent months, to the point where they nearly equal to President Obama's, Andrew Malcolm of the Los Angeles Times reports.
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Rep. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat and the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is the latest lawmaker to call for a new tax aimed at the rich to pay for a troop increase in Afghanistan.
White House Budget Director Peter Orszag has suggested it could cost the government $40 billion per year to send the 40,000 new troops sought by top U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal. (The Pentagon puts that figure somewhat lower.) Obey tells CBSNews.com the cost of the war could "destroy the other things we are trying to do in our economy."
In interviews with CBS News and ABC News, the Wisconsin lawmaker said that he favors a "war surtax" in which high-earners pay five percent of their incomes and lower-earners pay a smaller percentage, down to one percent.
"What we are saying is if this war is worth fighting, then it is worth paying for," Obey said on Monday's edition of CBSNews.com's "Washington Unplugged." (Watch at left.)
"We would impose a one percent surtax on anyone with taxable income that would rise to about two percent if you are making roughly $200,000 dollars, and once you get up into the stratasphere in terms of four or five hundred thousand dollars in income the surtax would be higher than that," he said. "Whatever the cost of the war is would be paid forthrough that tax. Because if we don’t do that that war will bleed every dollar in the budget away from any other initiative and it will block us from making the investments we need to make in our own economy." More...
The White House has announced that President Obama will hold another meeting with his so-called "war council" tonight to discuss the administration's long-awaited decision on strategy and U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan. According to CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, this will be the president's ninth such meeting to review Afghanistan and Pakistan policy.
The meeting with the national security team will take place at 8 p.m. ET in the Situation Room of the White House. Below is the list of expected attendees in addition to President Obama, according to the White House:
Vice President Joe Biden
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
Ambassador Susan Rice, Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations
Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy
Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
General James E. Cartwright, USMC, Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
General David Petraeus, U.S. Central Command
General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Commander in Afghanistan (via videoconference)
Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (via videoconference)
Anne Patterson, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan (via videoconference)
General James Jones, National Security Advisory
Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor
John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security
Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, Special Assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics
** Now the real fight over health care reform begins...
** President Obama tackles unemployment...
** Sarah Palin rises in polls during her book tour...
(AP)
HEALTH CARE: Democrats Saturday night squeaked by with 60 votes on a procedural motion to move the health care debate forward.
Still, writes Shalaigh Murray of the Washington Post, " Democrats had little time to savor their weekend Senate health-care victory, as two of the lawmakers who voted to move the debate forward Saturday night indicated Sunday that they will not vote to pass the package if it includes a government-run insurance program."
"Despite the success in the test vote, the fragile consensus in the Democratic caucus will face its greatest test yet as the health-care debate moves to the Senate floor and Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) struggles to stave off internal schisms. The cracks in the 60-member caucus are most obvious over the public insurance option.
"One member of the Democratic caucus, independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), reiterated Sunday that he will oppose any bill that contains a public option. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," he called such a government-run plan 'radical.'
"Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), another centrist who supported the move to continue debate but has made it clear he has many objections to the legislation as currently written, restated his opposition to a public plan. 'I don't want a big-government, Washington-run operation that undermines the private insurance that 200 million Americans now have,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.'"
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In the morning, President Obama will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and meet with senior advisers in the Oval Office. Later, he will deliver remarks at an event highlighting several initiatives designed to boost science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.
Mr. Obama and Vice President Biden will then have lunch in the Private Dining Room.
In the afternoon, Mr. Obama will hold a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room. Later, he will then meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.
In the evening, the president will deliver remarks and present the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to Magodonga Mahlangu and her organization, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), in an East Room ceremony.
Here's the full schedule from the White House (all times Eastern):
10:20AM: President Obama receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
10:50AM: President Obama meets with senior advisers
11:40AM: President Obama delivers remarks at event highlighting several initiatives designed to boost science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education
12:35PM: President Obama and Vice President Biden have lunch
1:45PM: President Obama meets with his Cabinet
4:50PM: President Obama meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
5:50PM: President Obama delivers remarks and presents the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
Senate Democrats managed to pull together a 60-vote majority Saturday evening to pass a key vote keeping health care reform legislation on track, despite efforts by Republicans (and a few contentious Democrats) to stall or kill the bill.
There are many issues in the 2,000+ page legislation being debated in the Senate, from insurer abuse, preconditions and spiraling health costs to abortion funding and Medicare taxes. But the most contentious issue popping up continues to be the so-called "public option" — government-backed health care coverage — similar to Medicare but available to anyone who cannot obtain or afford coverage from private insurance companies.
"You have people on one side saying 'I won't vote for a final bill if it's in it,' and you have other people saying, 'I won't vote for a final bill if it's not in it,'" said CBS News political analyst John Dickerson, "and so as Harry Reid and the president try to mollify one group, they end up making the other group angry." More...
The Future Of Fashion (10:35) From spray-on shirts to wearable computers, Mo Rocca takes a look at the future of fashion with Project Runway guru Tim Gunn.
Jackson's Ex-Wife Won't Attend Memorial
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