All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

President Obama, fresh off his jobs summit, will deliver a speech on the economy next Tuesday, December 8th at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

The White House just announced the invitation-only event, which will be held at 11:25 a.m. Eastern Time. More details will be released in coming days.

Having delivered his much-anticipated address laying out his new Afghanistan strategy, Mr. Obama is now shifting his focus to the economy and jobs. Polling suggests economic issues are the top concern among Americans, who are grappling with an unemployment rate above 10 percent.

Tomorrow, the president travel to Allentown, Pennsylvania, the first stop on his "White House to Main Street Tour."

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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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WEST POINT, NY (CBS) – Ending two-and-a-half months of sometimes anguishing deliberations, President Obama concluded the only responsible way out of Afghanistan is to first send in more troops. Thirty-thousand more troops.

The word "victory" did not appear in the president's address to the nation. Instead, he said his objective is to bring the war in Afghanistan "to a successful conclusion."

Making his first appearance as Commander-in-Chief before an audience of cadets here at the U.S. Military Academy, the president sought to explain what he portrayed as an unavoidable decision to escalate the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

"If I did not think that the security of the United States and the safety of the American people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow," he said.

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CBS News Chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer called President Obama's speech on Afghanistan Tuesday night "the defining moment of the Obama presidency."

"This was the night when Barack Obama that took full ownership of the war in Afghanistan," he said. "We're going to have 100,000 troops there, and more than half of them will have been sent there by the President."

In the speech, President Obama announced that 30,000 additional troops would be sent to Afghanistan.

The "Face the Nation" host also questioned Mr. Obama's strategy of setting a timetable for the troops to come home.

"How do you on the one hand say, 'we need to send these troops over there, it's critical, this is in our national security interest to do this'" Schieffer said, "but then say, 'but we're only going to keep 'em there for 18 months.'"

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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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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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American presidents often face their greatest speaking challenges when called upon to serve as consoler-in-chief to a nation grieving a collective loss.

But national calamities also give U.S. leaders an unequaled chance to inspire and provide solace.

Remember President Reagan's evening address to the nation on the day America suffered through the Challenger disaster that claimed the lives of 7 astronauts:

"Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss."

That speech is remembered as one of Ronald Reagan's finest and most moving – especially its ending.

"The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.'"

In 1995, President Clinton found himself in a similar situation, trying to comfort the nation after the worst episode of terrorism to hit the U.S. to that time: the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

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Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) has sent the Internet into a tizzy since interrupting President Obama's Wednesday night address to Congress, accusing the president of lying.

The congressman's Web site crashed due to exceptionally high traffic and asked visitors to "Please come back shortly."

"Joe Wilson" was the most searched phrase on Google on Wednesday, and "Joe Wilson South Carolina" was the third-most searched phrase.

While Democrats have used Wilson's outburst to raise money online for his electoral opponent, conservatives are taking to the Web to support Wilson's message. The conservative online publication the Palmetto Scoop and the conservative T-shirt company Made In Multiples are holding a contest to give away T-shirts that read "I’m With Joe Wilson! America's Congressman."

Meanwhile, a snarky Web site called JoeWilsonIsYourPreexistingCondition has popped up, with some pseudo-serious jabs at the congressman, such as "Joe Wilson yells while adults are talking," mixed in with ridiculous claims like, "Joe Wilson stole your newspaper." The Web site hurls insults at Wilson and provides a link to a fundraising page for his electoral opponent.

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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:

There was no question that President Obama's much-anticipated speech to a Joint Session of Congress last night had its share of fireworks. From a re-energized president to an unprecedented heckle from Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., the night had the feel of a campaign speech with a sprinkle of the summer's town meeting tension.

The big question, however: did the president's speech work? Are Democrats now unified? Will moderate Republicans jump on board? Are Americans' concerns quelled and are their questions answered? Did Americans even watch or is there a sort of health care reform fatigue?

Only time will tell.

Overnight, the pundits and the partisans weighed in. Today and over the weekend, Congress will have their say. Mr. Obama delivers another speech on health care in Washington D.C. today. The Nielsen TV ratings will be out later to answer the question of whether people tuned in. And the real indicator of success or failure lies in the next round of detailed polling.


WHAT HE SAID: "President Obama, offering some concessions to Republicans and yielding some of his own ground on healthcare, maintained tonight that a 'public option' of government-run insurance is only one option open to debate in the weeks ahead," reports the Los Angeles Times' Mark Silva.

"Insisting that lawmakers approve an overhaul of healthcare debated for decades by the end of this year, the president told a joint session of Congress in a nationally televised address that 'the time for games has passed....Now is the season for action.'...

"The president, while maintaining that some elements of his proposal were essential, made a pitch for his public option offering government-run healthcare for those who cannot find private coverage, but stopped short of demanding a plan imperiled in the Senate.

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White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Air Force One this morning that President Obama has not yet put the finishing touches on his planned address this evening to a joint session of Congress.

"He's still working on it," Gibbs said. "…he came back from Camp David Monday with many handwritten pages of notes that he gave to the speechwriters. He got another draft incorporating more edits last night, and worked on it with the speechwriters before he left this morning. So my sense is he'll be tinkering with this some this afternoon, but my sense is this thing will be locked sometime this afternoon."

Gibbs also spoke of Mr. Obama's "main goals" in the address, which he said are "to speak clearly to the American people about what's in health care reform; for those that are fortunate to have insurance, to demonstrate for them that his plan will bring them security and stability; and for those that don't have health insurance, that we'll provide an affordable way for them to get accessible insurance."

In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" today, the president blamed himself for leaving "too much ambiguity out there" on his health care plan, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.

Mr. Obama said ambiguity in his plan allowed "opponents of reform to come in and to fill up the airwaves with a lot of nonsense."

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