All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

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:

** The president takes it all on, from Afghanistan to jobs...

** A message on Afghanistan for Americans and for Pakistan...

** The Senate health care debate gets started...

PRESIDENT OBAMA: "The White House says Afghanistan and climate change will top President Barack Obama's agenda when he meets with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd [at 11:10am ET today]," reports the Associated Press.

"[Today's] meeting comes a day before Obama delivers a national address from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he's expected to announce an increase of up to 35,000 U.S. troops as part of a revised strategy for the war in Afghanistan. Australia has about 1,550 troops there, the largest contribution of any country outside of NATO.

"The meeting also comes ahead of global climate talks in Denmark. Rudd's government wants to slash Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020 if tough global targets can be agreed upon at the Copenhagen summit."

Wall Street Journal's Jonathan Weisman, "Critical Decisions This Week on Batch of Obama Initiatives": "A cascade of events this week, involving high-profile topics from Afghanistan to health care to jobs, is challenging the Obama White House's strategy of launching so many initiatives so fast in its first year."

New York Times' Jeff Zeleny, "Vital Tests for Obama on Mandate of Change": "In a narrow sense, President Obama’s handling of the critical issues of health care and Afghanistan in the weeks ahead will test the depth of his support among Democrats and determine whether he can draw Republicans to his foreign policy.

"But more broadly, how he manages those two challenges will provide the biggest trial yet of his ability to use the mandate he claimed more than a year ago to bring about substantial change in a political system that often conspires against it.

"He is heading into this pivotal moment with his job-approval ratings down and much of his initial shine tarnished by months of political combat."

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Oprah Winfrey will interview President Obama for a holiday special on ABC called "Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special," the Live Feed reports.

The talk show host, who recently announced that she would end her show in two years, is fresh off a high-profile sit down with former GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The special with the president will reportedly include the interview with Mr. Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as well as a White House tour.

The special is scheduled to air on Sunday, December 13th.

Winfrey backed Mr. Obama during the presidential campaign, breaking with her longtime practice of remaining neutral in elections.

A leading human rights organization today harshly criticized President Obama for failing to sign on to the Mine Ban Treaty. The treaty, which has been signed by 156 countries, bans the use, stockpiling, production or transfer of land mines.

"President Obama's decision to cling to antipersonnel mines keeps the U.S. on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of humanity," Steve Goose, Arms Division director at Human Rights Watch, said in a released statement.

The international campaign against land mine use drew attention in part thanks to the efforts of Princess Diana of Wales, who died in 1997. Since its introduction in December of that year, 158 countries have signed on to the Mine Ban Treaty, including all but two Western Hemisphere countries and all but one NATO member.

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Here's the latest from the Obama Pardon Scoreboard:

People: 0
Turkeys: 1

President Obama has yet to grant any pardons or commutations to people since taking office. Over 1,000 pardon requests are pending for Mr. Obama, who has received 232 since he took office.

He pardoned his first turkey today.

President George W. Bush granted no pardons until Christmas of his second year in office.

At one point, his pardon scoreboard was Turkeys: 4, People: 0.

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Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.

Before President Barack Obama addresses the nation Tuesday night from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on his decision regarding the Afghanistan war, he will have to face a possibly tougher audience.

Top congressional leaders, Chairmen and ranking members of the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Appropriations committees have been invited to the White House late Tuesday afternoon to meet with the president for an advanced briefing on the new policy. And it could be tense.

It is expected that Mr. Obama will announce that he will deploy 30,000 to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. That's in addition to 68,000 U.S. troops already in that country, bringing the total number of soldiers to around 100,000. Both the White House Office of Management and Budget and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen have estimated that it would cost $1 billion for each thousand additional troops to pay for logistical support, salaries, equipment, transportation and additional training.

CBSNews.com Special Report: Afghanistan

That cost issue has become a real target for at least two Democrats invited to Tuesday's meeting. The first is the powerful Chairman of the House Appropriations committee, David Obey (D-WI). It's often said that the Appropriations Committees hold the purse strings in Congress. Any additional war spending would have to go through Chairman Obey, and he's threatening to tie those strings tight.

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"You know, there are certain days that remind me of why I ran for this office," President Obama exclaimed today. "And then there are moments like this, where I pardon a turkey and send it to Disneyland."

With a light tone and his daughters in tow, Mr. Obama participated in a relatively recent tradition on the day before Thanksgiving: The presidential turkey pardon. Though he eventually raised his hand over "Courage," the bird in question, to offer a pardon, the president suggested he was somewhat reticent to do so.

"That's a good looking bird," Mr. Obama said, later stating that his daughters convinced him to go through with the pardon. "Thanks to the intervention of Malia and Sasha, because I was planning to eat this sucker, Courage will also be spared this terrible and delicious fate."

While turkeys have been coming to the White House for more than 50 years, they have only been pardoned for the last couple decades. Mr. Obama noted that both Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson ate the turkeys presented to them, while President Kennedy's turkey came with a sign that said, "Good Eatin', Mr. President" around its neck.

(Check out CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller's history of the presidential turkey pardon here.)

Courage, this year's lucky bird, will be the grand marshal of a parade at Disneyland tomorrow; he will then live out the rest of his days at the theme park. A backup turkey, "Carolina," was also spared, in case Courage cannot fulfill his duties.

Sasha and Malia Obama took the opportunity to pet the turkey, which was donated by the National Turkey Federation, following the pardon. One of the girls could be heard saying, "he is like a large chicken."

As Knoller points out, the turkey pardon today was moved from the White House Rose Garden to the North Portico today – because, ahem, of "fowl weather."

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Nothing a president does lends itself more easily to a punch line – deliberate or inadvertent - than the annual pardon of a Thanksgiving turkey.

"I think it's kind of funny, and it's an annual ritual," said President Clinton at his first turkey pardon ceremony in 1993.

He said the pardon was easy for him "because I've been around turkeys all my life." Upon realizing the double meaning of his statement, Mr. Clinton was quick to add: "I didn't mean it like that."

At the turkey pardon in 2001, President George W. Bush observed that "our guest of honor looks a little nervous. Nobody's told him yet that I'm going to give him a pardon."

In 1990, then-President George H. W. Bush sought to allay the fears of his audience that a "terrible fate" awaited the turkey presented him.
"We've decided to spare him. He will not be subjected to questions from the Washington press corps after this ceremony."

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Officials say President Obama will put forward a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 during the Copenhagen Climate Talks in December.

They say this reflects Mr. Obama's broader commitment to reduce emissions by 83 percent by 2050 in interim steps as follows:

• 30 percent below 2005 levels in 2025
• 42 percent below 2005 levels in 2030

These numbers are similar to the bills pending in both House and Senate.

White House climate change adviser Carol Browner says the Congressional Budget Office has scored the economic impact of these reductions at $173 a year per family of four in 2020.

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Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.

Updated 11:11 a.m. Eastern Time

President Obama will announce his new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as any troop increase in the region, in a speech next Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time at the United States Military Academy at West Point, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters this morning.

In the speech at West Point, which is located 50 miles north of New York City, the president is expected to announce he is deploying between 30,000 and 35,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. Gibbs said today that the president has not yet informed him of a final decision.

The press secretary said the president will discuss how to get additional troops into Afghanistan, how to train Afghan forces to take their place, and how to get them out.

"This is year nine of the United States in Afghanistan and we're not going to be there in another eight or nine years," he said, adding: "Our time there will be limited."

Gibbs said the president will discus how to ramp up training of Afghan personnel so security forces "can keep the gains that have been made."

Following a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday, the president vowed to "finish the job" that began more than eight years ago in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks.

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CBS News has confirmed that President Obama will attend the United Nations climate change summit next month in Copenhagen, according to senior administration officials.

Mr. Obama will be in Denmark on December 9 for the summit, which is expected to have at least 65 world leaders, according to the Associated Press. It was unknown until now whether Mr. Obama would attend the meeting, which is designed to create a new global treaty on climate change.

The president's visit to Copenhagen comes just before he heads to Oslo, Norway, to accept the Nobel Peace Prize the following day.