All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Sarah Palin's book is based on fabrications, former John McCain adviser Nicolle Wallace has told MSNBC.

In her new book "Going Rogue," the former vice presidential candidate claims that Wallace convinced Palin to do an interview with CBS News Anchor Katie Couric because Couric admired Palin as a working mother. Palin also claims that Wallace, a former CBS political analyst, told her that Couric had low self-esteem.

"The whole notion there was a conversation where I tried to cajole her into a conversation with Katie [Couric] is fiction," Wallace told MSNBC. "I am not someone who throws around the word 'self-esteem.' It is a fictional description."

Furthermore, Wallace said, the interview was set up on the day of the U.N. General Assembly to emphasize Palin's foreign policy savvy -- in other words, the interview was not about the connection Couric and Palin shared as working mothers.

"It was never made as two working gals," Wallace said. "It's either rationalization or justification or fiction."

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On this week's edition of CBSNews.com's @katiecouric, military historian Kimberly Kagan told Katie Couric that while "al-Qaeda has a global focus," the Taliban "has a slightly more narrow focus in Afghanistan."

That isn't to say that the groups don't share goals and know each other, however.

"What we have in Afghanistan is a network of enemy groups who are tied by close personal relationships between their leaders," said Kagan.

She noted that "the first few steps that these groups need to undertake are actually shared in common."

"They need safe havens," Kagan said. "They need to establish a state in which they can produce their vision of law, order and justice. And from which they can project power."

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On this week's edition of CBSNews.com's @katiecouric, journalist George Packer said the United States basically "turned our backs on" Afghanistan following the American-led invasion of the country.

"We never had anywhere close to the number of troops that we needed there," the New Yorker staff writer told Katie Couric. "The money we did spend was largely wasted on big contracts for private contractors who sent 90 percent of the money back to the United States. We took our eye off Afghanistan."

"We forgot that there was a Taliban," Packer added. "Turned out the Taliban had not been defeated. They had really withdrawn across the border to Pakistan and reconstituted themselves and a lot of the old figures are now back in play."

Packer blamed both a corrupt Afghan government and the U.S. for giving the Taliban a "second chance."

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On this week's edition of CBSNews.com's @katiecouric, journalist George Packer said President Obama "does not want his presidency to be broken by the Afghanistan war."

"This war is losing popularity really, really fast," Packer, a New Yorker staff writer, told Katie Couric. "Almost since he's been president the air has gone out of it."

Packer said he believes Mr. Obama will likely "find a middle way" in crafting a strategy going forward in Afghanistan.

"It's obviously gonna be partly a political decision," he said. "He's a political leader. He can't afford to be totally out in front of the American public on this war or else - the support for it would disappear immediately."

"On the other hand, I think he's doing something that George W. Bush never did and it's very important," continued Packer. "He is showing civilian leadership. George W. Bush allowed - in the last years of his presidency, allowed military advisers to make his policy for him."

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In an interview with Oprah Winfrey which airs today, 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin contends her Oct. 2008 interview with CBS News Anchor Katie Couric unfairly cast her in a negative light.

"For people who only know me from that interview, I don't blame people for thinking I was ill-qualified," Palin said on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Palin was roundly criticized after the interview for not naming any of the news sources she regularly reads. However, the former Alaska governor said she answered the way she did because she was bristling at the very question.

"It was more like, 'Are you kidding me, are you really asking me?" Palin said. "It seemed like [Couric] was discovering this nomadic tribe ... asking me, 'How do you stay in touch with the real world?"

"I rolled my eyes and was annoyed with the question," she continued, adding that she thought, "No matter what I say it will be twisted and perceived as a bit negative."

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Sarah Palin did not believe her 2008 interview with CBS News Anchor Katie Couric would be a defining moment in the presidential election, she tells Oprah Winfrey in an upcoming interview -- but she knew it was bad.

The McCain campaign, however, thought the interview went well, Palin tells Winfrey in an interview that will broadcast Monday.

"The campaign said, right on. Good. You're showing your independence," Palin said, according to an excerpt from the interview. "And of course I'm thinking, if you thought that was a good interview, I don't know what a bad interview is because I knew it was a bad interview."

Palin was lampooned by Saturday Night Live for the interview, which some called a "turning point" in the campaign.

Palin Says Oprah "Gracious"; Book Details Leak

The former Alaska governor also told Winfrey she'd like to tamp down the feud she has with Levi Johnston, the father of her grandson. Winfrey asked if Johnston would be attending Thanksgiving dinner with the Palins.

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Conservative commentator Glenn Beck caused a bit of a stir this week, saying on the debut of @katiecouric, Katie Couric's new web-only interview show, that Sen. John McCain "would have been worse for the country than Barack Obama." (watch the Beck interview at left)

Beck also told Couric that McCain was a "weird progressive" like Theodore Roosevelt.

Well, McCain took that as a compliment, saying on the "The Early Show" Wednesday that "any time my name is mentioned in the same breath as Teddy Roosevelt, I am honored. Teddy Roosevelt's my hero."

Katie Couric's full interview with Glenn Beck

You can watch the interview with McCain below after a report on Mr. Obama's U.N. speech:

In an exclusive interview with CBS News' Katie Couric, President Obama responded to a question from a Twitter user about whether or not he feels guilty going on vacation with his family "when so many families are struggling."

"Well, the truth is, when you're president you're never really on vacation," Mr. Obama responded. "The whole apparatus travels with you. I've got the entire national security apparatus in front of me, I'm getting daily briefings on national security."

"So if the question is do I think every single day about the hardships that the American people are going through? Absolutely," he continued. "Do I think the American people think that because [of] those hardships I shouldn't spend a little time with my daughters? I don't think that's how the American people think about it."

CBS News' Katie Couric used part of her exclusive interview with President Barack Obama today to ask him about a David Brooks column in today's New York Times. Brooks argues that the president has over-interpreted his mandate and is letting Nancy Pelosi lead the Democrats on a "suicide march."

Mr. Obama's response – besides a bit of a ribbing of Couric for excerpting so much of the Brooks column in her question – was that he's not too worried about what Brooks thinks.

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Asked by CBS News' Katie Couric in an exclusive interview whether illegal immigrants should be covered under a new health care plan, President Obama responded simply, "no." But he said there may need to be an exception to that policy for children.

"First of all, I'd like to create a situation where we're dealing with illegal immigration, so that we don't have illegal immigrants," he said. "And we've got legal residents or citizens who are eligible for the plan. And I want a comprehensive immigration plan that creates a pathway to achieve that."

"The one exception that I think has to be discussed is how are we treating children," he continued. "Partly because if you've got children who may be here illegally but are still in playgrounds or at schools, and potentially are passing on illnesses and communicable diseases, that aren't getting vaccinated, that I think is a situation where you may have to make an exception."