All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Americans are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with conditions in the United States today and isolationist sentiments are at an all time high, according to a poll released today by the Pew Research Center.

For the first time in the institute's 45 years conducting the poll, more respondents agreed (49 percent) that the United States "should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own" than disagreed (44 percent). A majority, 76 percent, believes that the country should focus more on problems at home and not concentrate as much on international issues.

Andrew Kohut, the president of the Pew Research Center, told the Associated Press in an interview that the "very bad economy" factored heavily in the growth of isolationist sentiment.

The poll also reflects a decidedly pessimistic mood among members of the public: only 25 percent reported feeling satisfied with conditions in America today, and even fewer, 15 percent, said they feel satisfied with conditions in the world.

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BEIJING -- When he's not been pressing the Chinese on human rights, or asking them to change their economic policy, or seeking their help on stopping North Korea and Iran's nuclear weapons programs, President Obama is taking in the sights of Beijing.

Between high level meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao and a formal and lavish state dinner last night, the president toured the Forbidden City, once the home of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

While the president didn't see all of the 9,999 buildings in the 178 acre complex, he did see the Hall of Central Harmony, the Hall of Preserving Harmony, the Central Garden and the Imperial Garden, where the ruling families spent leisure time.

Mr. Obama signed a guest book at the bowed to his tour guides. "Thank you, it was a wonderful tour," he said.

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After 30 years of a formal relationship between the U.S. and Chinese governments, their bilateral commitment to global issues is more important than ever, Jon Huntsman, U.S. Ambassador to China, said during a press briefing in Beijing Tuesday. The United States and China, he said, are the only two countries that together can solve issues relating to energy, climate change, regional security or the global economy.

"I would say today like never before we are in a position where we should be able to coordinate on many of these key issues in an unprecedented way," he said.

President Obama on Tuesday met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in what Huntsman called "an all-time high in terms of the bilateral atmosphere."

In spite of that positive assessment, Huntsman cautioned that the United States -- and he personally -- still have quite a bit to learn about China.

"Don't mistake me for being an expert, because I've been here for three months," Huntsman said. "And I've come to the conclusion that 'China expert' is kind of an oxymoron. And those who consider themselves to be China experts are kind of morons. So you take what you can, you learn what you can, and you begin to pull all the pieces together, and still it kind of remains sometimes a somewhat confused environment."

More on President Obama's trip to China:

Photo Essay: Obama in China
Obama Stresses Cooperation With Hu, China
At Shanghai Forum, Obama Stresses Freedoms
Transcript: Obama's Town Hall in China
President Obama, Can We Twitter?
U.S., China Fuel Each Other's Bad Habits
In China, Obama Meets America's Lender

Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

** McCain stays out of the Palin discussion...

** Reid’s job on health care gets harder...

** President Obama addresses a tightly controlled crowd in China...

SARAH PALIN: "Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said a White House bid in 2012 is 'not on my radar screen' as she began a public relations blitz keyed to the release of her new memoir," reports USA Today's Catalina Camia.

"'You don't need a title to make a difference,' she said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Monday.

"The former Alaska governor's autobiography, Going Rogue, hits bookstore shelves today. It is already atop online retailer Amazon.com's best-seller list because of advance orders.

"In an interview with ABC's Barbara Walters that begins airing today, Palin left open the door on her political plans. Asked whether she'll play a major role, she said, 'If people will have me, I will.' Palin also discussed media opportunities. 'There have been lots and lots of offers,' she said, including a reality show, which 'I would not ever want to put my kids through.'"

Palin weighed in on her Facebook page following her interview with Walters writing, "Had a great conversation today with Barbara Walters regarding America’s special needs community. Her compassion for those who some in our society see as ‘less than perfect’ comes from personal experience as she was so close to her sister. Barbara wrote lovingly about her sister in her #1 bestselling memoir titled, Audition. Barbara and I even attempted to interview Trig during this segment, but he was about as patient through the interview as any other one-and-a-half-year-old child! I appreciate Barbara highlighting America’s special needs community."

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Following President Obama's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, the White House released a joint statement on the relationship between the two countries, "bilateral strategic trust," economic cooperation, regional and global challenges and climate change. Read it below.

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(SHANGHAI, China) As President Obama makes his first trip to China as president, he faces some tough negotiations with the rising economic power of Asia.

The U.S. relationship with China is crucial to White House goals on some of its top priorities: de-nuclearizing Iran and North Korea, global climate change and reviving the economy. But, it is the economy that may be the hardest issue for Mr. Obama to deal with because China and the U.S. fuel each other's bad habits.

Of all the arcane terms for the issue -- currency manipulation, hard pegs, non-convertible currency or rebalancing -- what it really comes down to is a "mutually reinforcing drug addiction," said Mike Green of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Green explains how it works: "We get cheap goods, they get great exports and economy growth, they get stuck with a lot of dollars, they don't want their currency to be convertible because that would mean they lose control of domestic, social and economic and political tools, so they recycle it back to the U.S., we get to keep borrowing more money, and so the cycle goes on," he said.

In other words, the U.S. buys Chinese goods. We pay them in U.S. dollars. They don't put the U.S. dollars back into their economy through their currency, the Yuan, because it is not convertible. Instead, they use those dollars to buy U.S. treasuries, our debt -- more than one trillion dollars worth, more than any other country. By financing our debt, the U.S. can spend more money on stimulus, wars, health care, and the debt rises, and China buys more and more of it.

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A White House official says China has assured the U.S. there will be no media censorship of President Barack Obama's remarks during a three-day visit that will take him to Shanghai and Beijing.

The official told CBS News the administration secured a Chinese government promise to carry the President's remarks "as spoken." The official also said the White House would be ready to "make it a big story" if China blocks out any of the President's words.

Government censors removed references to communism and dissent from the official Chinese language translation of President Obama's January inaugural speech. The main Chinese television network also wiped out certain passages from the inaugural speech.

John Delury, Associate Director of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, says Chinese people are very aware of government efforts to control information flow.

"There's a cat and mouse game that goes on, but the reality on the ground in China is there is pretty good access to most of the information," Delury said. "China is a pretty wired place, especially the cities and the younger generation."

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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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President Obama will make his first trip to Asia as president in November, the White House formally announced Wednesday. He will visit Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea.

The president will begin his trip in Tokyo, Japan, on November 12 and will meet for the second time with the Japanese prime minister, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

"The president's visit will provide an opportunity to deepen coordination with this key ally on a range of economic, security and other issues," he said.

From there, Mr. Obama will travel to Singapore for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, where he will meet with leaders from the APEC member economies and business leaders from the Asian-Pacific region. The president will also hold bilateral meetings with leaders from Singapore and other partners.

Mr. Obama will also hold the first-ever meeting between a U.S. president and leaders of the 10 Southeast Asian nations that make up the ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

He will then visit China and hold his third bilateral meeting with President Hu Jintao to work on a range of issues, including security, nonproliferation, energy and climate change.

The last leg of the trip will be a stop in Seoul, South Korea, where Mr. Obama will hold his third bilateral meeting with President Lee and consult on North Korea and other issues.

While the president has previously discussed visiting Indonesia, where he spent part of his childhood, Gibbs said Wednesday that Mr. Obama will most likely visit there some time next year.

As we all know by now, tonight is the much-anticipated White House meeting between President Obama, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cambridge police sergeant James Crowley.

But before Mr. Obama gets down to that "Beer Diplomacy" he engaged in some "Basketball Diplomacy" with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan. He was in Washington for two days of meeting on economic and foreign policy with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and others.

The White House released the above picture of the meeting on Tuesday, where Mr. Obama presented the vice premier with an autographed basketball. It looks like the president is giving Wang some pointers for his jump shot.

This wasn't Mr. Obama's only basketball reference during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. In remarks to the opening session, the president quoted NBA star Yao Ming, who is from China.

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