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, has become 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 number lower.) Obey says the cost could "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy."
In an interview with 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 may a smaller percentage, down to one percent.
"On the merits, I think it is a mistake to deepen our involvement," Obey told ABC. "But if we are going to do that, then at least we ought to pay for it."
Last week, Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called for an "additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000" to pay for a troop increase. 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...
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada secured the 60 votes needed to move forward with the historic debate on President Obama’s overhaul of health care today. More...
Tina Fey reprised a tiny bit of her "Saturday Night Live" Sarah Palin impersonation last night during a presentation at the Ad Council Annual Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.
During her 7:40 minute routine, Fey made some jokes about the former McCain vice-presidential candidate's best-selling book, "Going Rogue," and then said (at around 2:40 in the video below), "Mrs. Palin and I continue to have so much in common. They recently made a porn movie... this is true... about Sarah Palin and then this same adult actress, Lisa Ann, played me in a porn parody of '30 Rock' ...Weirdly, of the three of us, Lisa Ann knows the most about foreign policy."
Fey saved her brief impersonation for the end of her time on stage, starting out in her own voice, "We'll begin with an issue that is," and then in her Palin voice "so critical to the future opportunity."
The audience laughed, and she said, "I'm gonna be doing that 'till I'm dead."
In an interview for Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," the senator suggests funding additional troops with an "additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000."
"They have done incredibly well, and I think that it's important that we pay for it if we possibly can," Levin said, according to Bloomberg. He also called for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to provide half of the new soldiers sent to Afghanistan.
White House Budget Director Peter Orszag has put the cost of each additional troop at $1 million. More...
With the first critical vote for the Senate health care bill slated for Saturday night, both advocates and opponents of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's bill are putting pressure on the few key Democratic senators who may or may not hold up the measure.
On Saturday at 8 p.m., the Senate will vote on whether or not to even begin debate on the measure. Reid needs at least 60 senators to vote in favor of debate, and Republicans plan on uniformly voting against moving forward. A handful of conservative Democrats have expressed reservations about supporting the bill, for various reasons, and two have not yet disclosed whether they will vote in favor of moving the debate forward on Saturday: Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.).
However, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), another conservative Democrat whose vote was in play, announced today he would vote in favor of beginning debate. He maintained, though, that he will vote with Republicans to filibuster the bill after debating it, if it is not altered to his liking.
"The Senate should start trying to fix a health care system that costs too much and delivers too little for Nebraskans," Nelson said in a statement. Saturday's vote, he said, "is only to begin debate and an opportunity to make improvements. If you don't like a bill why block your own opportunity to amend it?"
Nelson and his fellow centrist Democrats have been feeling the heat from all sides. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) e-mailed his supporters this morning, Politico reports, urging them to call Nelson's office and ask him to vote against the health care debate tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee sent out an e-mail with the subject "Your Call Can Make the Difference," also urging people to call Nelson and Lincoln and ask them to vote against Saturday's motion.
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Jackson's Ex-Wife Won't Attend Memorial
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