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President Obama delivered his much-anticipated address detailing his new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan on Tuesday night, and reaction is already pouring in. Below, a sampling:

• Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee chairman, issued a statement saying he is "glad the president will finally provide General McChrystal with the troops he needs."

"If the president remains committed to this crucial fight, Republicans - and the American people - will stand with him," he said. "But sending mixed signals by outlining the exit before these troops even get on the ground undermines their ability to succeed."

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the president "articulated a way out of this war with the mission of defeating Al Qaeda and preventing terrorists from using Afghanistan and Pakistan as safe havens to again launch attacks against the United States and our allies."

"The President has offered President Karzai a chance to prove that he is a reliable partner," she said. "The American people and the Congress will now have an opportunity to fully examine this strategy."

• Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell said he supports "the President’s decision to follow the advice of Generals Petraeus and McChrystal in ordering a surge of forces into Afghanistan."

"As this surge of forces produces results in security, governance and in capabilities of the Afghanistan Security Forces, we must ensure that the transition of responsibilities is based on conditions, not timelines," he added.

• "I do not support the president’s decision to send additional troops to fight a war in Afghanistan that is no longer in our national security interest," said Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold. "It’s an expensive gamble to undertake armed nation-building on behalf of a corrupt government of questionable legitimacy. Sending more troops could further destabilize Afghanistan and, more importantly, Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state where al Qaeda is headquartered."

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The two charts below show troop levels in Afghanistan, both over time and at present. The top chart shows U.S. troop levels, which have steadily risen and peaked this year. 30,000 additional U.S. troops will be deployed in the coming months.



The second chart shows how many troops various countries around the world now have deployed in Afghanistan. America has far and away the most troops in the country, followed by Britain, Germany and France.

Below, a chart showing public opinion on whether troop levels in Afghanistan should be increased, decreased or held the same over the course of 2009:



Polling Analysis: Afghanistan 2009 Vs. Iraq 2007

Poll: Assessments of Obama's Handling of War

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The White House has released excerpts of President Obama's primetime speech this evening on his new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The excerpts confirm that Mr. Obama is planning to deploy 30,000 additional troops and is planning to "begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan" by July, 2011. Read them below.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: "The 30,000 additional troops that I am announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010 – the fastest pace possible – so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers. They will increase our ability to train competent Afghan Security Forces, and to partner with them so that more Afghans can get into the fight. And they will help create the conditions for the United States to transfer responsibility to the Afghans."

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Below, a chart showing monthly U.S. troop deaths in and around Afghanistan built off Associated Press data. 929 U.S. troops have been killed in the conflict, according to iCasualties.

The city council of the District of Columbia has voted to legalize same-sex marriage, putting the nation's capital on the brink of joining Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Massachusetts in making the practice legal.

Another state, New Hampshire, will begin allowing same-sex marriages on January 1st.

The 11-2 vote is not the final say on the matter. The Washington Post reports that the council will hold a second vote in two weeks. The bill, if it passes, would then go to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who supports it.

If and when Fenty signs the legislation it will face Congressional review. Congress could overrule the city council, though it is not expected to do so.

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Embattled Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who acknowledged an affair with a member of his staff over the summer, said today that he will not resign, in part because doing so would help Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada win reelection.

"For the people who want to beat Harry Reid, you’d have a second Senate race [in 2010] and that takes the focus off Harry Reid," Ensign said on conservative radio station KXNT today, according to Politico. He said splitting Republican resources in the 2012 midterms would hurt "the conservative cause."

Reid is expected to face a tough reelection campaign next year, with a poll last month finding that two different Republicans would defeat him if the election had been held then. The survey found Reid's unfavorable rating to be 50 percent.

Ensign is vowing to serve it out his term, which runs until 2012.

Ensign, who said in 2004 that "marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded" and who called fellow Republican Sen. Larry Craig a "disgrace" following Craig's arrest for disorderly conduct in an airport restroom, has acknowledged and apologized for his ninth-month affair with former aide Cindy Hampton. After Cindy Hampton and her husband Doug stopped working for Ensign in April, Ensign's parents gave the couple $96,000.

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Republicans who regularly listen to radio host Rush Limbaugh or watch Fox News host Glenn Beck see Sarah Palin as the best representative of their party's core values, according to a new Washington Post poll.

A story on the full poll is here.

Palin was cited by 48 percent of Limbaugh listeners and 35 percent of Beck viewers as most representing the party's core values, far more than anyone else in the poll. Overall, 18 percent of Republicans cited Palin, making her the top choice among the GOP rank-and-file.

The former GOP vice presidential nominee was also the top choice among all Republicans to be the party's 2012 presidential nominee, though party members are split so far in advance of the election. Despite finishing first, Palin was cited by just 17 percent of Republicans as their first choice to be the nominee.

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Among the guests at President Obama's jobs summit on Thursday, formally called the "Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth," will be Eric Schmidt, the head of Google, and Disney chief Bob Iger, according to a partial list released by the White House.

Also on the list is Nobel Prize winning New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman, pictured at left.

The White House expects approximately 130 attendees for the forum. Here's the list of confirmed attendees, which includes representatives from major companies and non-profit groups, small business owners, elected officials, union heads and academics:

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Former GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who has been emerging from a bus emblazoned with her name and photograph during her publicity tour for her memoir "Going Rogue," may be flying between her promotional appearances.

A blog called "Palingates," citing the flight log, first reported that Palin has apparently been traveling on a Gulfstream II 12-passenger jet from stop to stop.

Joe McGinniss at The Daily Beast then picked up the story. Before the tour, Palin's publicist had claimed that Palin would be "making two and sometimes three stops a day, traveling in a bus painted with the cover of her book." The former Alaska governor also gave interviews from the bus, driving home the notion that it was her mode of transportation for the tour.

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