(More after the jump)

By Brian No

Since announcing July 3 that she’d be stepping down as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin’s future has been the source of much discussion—but not, it turns out, all that much debate. The TV pundits have agreed (and agreed and agreed) on her way forward. Here's an extremely scientific (by which we mean not scientific at all) tally of how many mentions each pearl of wisdom has received:

Palin will/should … (approximate total mentions)

Barnstorm for Republican candidates     116

Cash in!        91

Write a book/go on book tour    87

Speechify       86

Get her own TV show/do media    62

Master the issues       34

Lead conservative movement      25

Generally expand and build support      24

Improve reputation/credibility  23     

(Data collected from CNN, FOX NEWS, MSNBC, JULY 4-27) 

P.S. - In case you're interested, here's what we thought she should do: click here.

Photo by Pete Souza/White House

And here it is: The official White House photo of President Obama clinking beer mugs with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and his arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police. Not pictured: Joe Biden who also attended and drank, gasp, non-alcoholic beer. (Seriously Joe?)  So what happened? Well, no one apologized, but according to Crowley, the two agreed that it was more important to look forward rather than backward. Gates said he better understands the sacrifices officers like Crowley make. And Obama was just thankful to be there. Gates and Crowley apparently agreed to talk again—this time away from all the lights and cameras. And that's it. So can we talk about something else now?

Photo by Pete Souza/White House

We've said it before and we'll say it again: The official White House Flickr feed is a constant source of entertainment--and not always in the way the administration probably intended. Your Gaggler has to give major props to Ana Marie Cox and Jason Linkins who have written some pretty hysterical interpretations of what exactly is happening in WH photos for The Awl. But you know what? We bet you, dear Gaggle readers, can be just as funny. So here's your first assignment: What is happening in the above picture from this week featuring President Obama and some visiting members of the official Chinese delegation. Tell us in the comments or send us an email. We'll publish the funniest and maybe we'll even come up with an official Gaggle prize. Wow, right?! I still happen to have a perfectly preserved "Scott" cookie from Scott McClellan's going-away party in the White House briefing room in 2006--though that might be hard to give up. But we'll find something.

If you thought the debate over health care reform was heated now, just wait until Congress goes home for recess—especially if you live in a so-called swing district. Pretty much every lobby with a stake in health care—big business, insurance, pharmaceutical companies, both political parties, among others—are planning a major blitz to try to shape the outcome of the bill. And that means you likely won’t get a reprieve from the back and forth over cost and the so-called public plan anytime soon. For lack of a better word, it’s going to be a total ad-pocalyse, along the likes of what we saw during the final weeks of the presidential campaign last fall.

So far, President Obama’s allies have been the most vocal. Organizing for America, the grassroots remnants of President Obama’s presidential campaign, launched ads several weeks ago targeting moderate Democrats—much to the chagrin of some in the party. OFA won’t say how much it’s spent so far, but safe to say, it’s been a bundle, and the group plans to spend even more in the coming weeks on TV ads and other grassroots efforts to sway the public into putting pressure on lawmakers to pass a bill. Ditto for other Obama allies in the fight, including the labor movement and progressive groups like MoveOn.org—all of whom are planning major campaigns during the recess. The big message: We can no longer afford to wait on health care reform. All told, Obama allies have spent at least $10 million so far advocating for the president’s health care proposal, according to the Campaign Media and Analysis Group, which tracks ad buys.

Those opposed to the bill have spent a little over half that much—but that disparity likely won’t last.

Who says news mags are dead? At a town hall in North Carolina this afternoon, President Obama gave a shout-out to this week’s cover of Newsweek:

I don't know whether you've seen the cover of the latest Newsweek magazine on the rack at the grocery store, but the cover says "The Recession Is Over."  I bet you found that news a little startling.  I know I did. Now, it's true that we've stopped the freefall.  The market is up and the financial system is no longer on the verge of collapse. We're losing jobs at nearly half the rate we were when I took office six months ago.  So, we may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession. But that's little comfort if you're one of the folks who have lost their job, and haven't found another….

OMG, Obama still reads Newsweek?! Yippee! Eat it, Time! Oh wait, he was sort of trashing us, wasn’t he? This cannot stand. Here’s the response from Daniel Gross, who wrote the article, and guess what: He thinks Obama didn’t read the piece, considering he went on to articulate the very same argument that the article actually makes. (You've gotta at least read those subheads, Mr. Prez.) Here’s Dan:

Lobbying expenditures have increased in the second quarter of this year, and health care lobbyists appear to be the ones raking in the dough, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Around $262m has been spent on health care related lobbying so far this year. The graph below shows gives a breakdown of expenditure by sector. (Note: "Single Issue" refers to lobbying on topics like human rights, gun rights, Israel and abortion.)

Data Courtesy of the Center for Responsive Politics

Perhaps unsurprisingly, expenditure on health care and energy lobbying has grown at a faster rate than spending on other topics over the last ten years. The compound annual growth rate (not adjusted for inflation) for health care lobbying from 1998 to 2008 was just over 11% compared with 8% on finance, 9.6% on energy and 7.3% on communications, which represented a greater proportion of lobbying spending in the late 1990s. 

Data Courtesy of the Center for Responsive Politics

If the road to becoming a Supreme Court justice is paved with obstacles, then Sonia Sotomayor just jumped over the penultimate one. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted this morning to approve Sotomayor's nomination, which puts the only thing now standing between her and the high bench is a full vote in the senate. Predictable, yes, especially after weeks of speculation that she'd have no problem being seated. But what was surprising was Sen. Lindsey Graham, who delivered a thoughtful statement before the vote about Sotomayor's qualifications and the significance of her nomination as a Latino woman. This is the same Lindsey Graham, forget not, who berated the judge and condescended her by reading anonymous reviews of her fierce questioning style on the bench. "Do you have a temperament problem?" he asked flatly at one point, opening himself to heavy criticism as he became the news of the day, rather than Sotomayor.

Today, though, he was singing a different tune. He said they disagree, and it's fine that they do, because that's the beauty of the American legal system. And, he added, he'd be casting a vote for her. Then, wrapping up his speech, he carefully stroked the same ego he had dented just two weeks ago. "Her life story...is something that every American should be proud of, and if her selection to the Supreme Court will inspire young women, particularly Latino women, to seek a career in the law, then that is a good thing — and I hope it will."

When we heard that President Obama would host Skip Gates and his arresting officer at the White House this week, we chalked it up to just Obama being Obama. But now, just days before, another antagonistic pair in town is canoodling? Now that's a downright trend. We hereby proclaim this "Make Amends Week" in Washington.

Fellow Newsweek-ette Sarah Ball, who writes our Popvox Blog, just alerted us to this amusing video. She writes, "Master thespian William Shatner took a break from shilling Priceline last night to do a dramatic poetry reading on The Tonight Show.  But the verse in question wasn't Keats or Auden-it was Palin.  Beaucoup snaps from this corner of the coffeehouse." Enjoy!

Update: The video has since been removed from YouTube, but you can still watch it here.

Well, well, well … another “racial incident” is upon us. This time, we’re in an uproar over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates (black) by Sgt. James Crowley (white) for disorderly conduct after a heated argument about whether Gates had broken into his own house in Cambridge, Mass. Incidents like this should be an excuse to have a nuanced discussion about race in America. It's an excellent opportunity for people to hear about why black men feel so threatened by police. Hell, it would be a great time for a bit of B-roll─just a taste of the famous incidents that have seared a distrust of the police into African-Americans, for better or for worse. It could start with the use of high-pressure water hoses and dogs on children in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963, and continue through the high-profile murders of black folks, such as Emmett Till, by people who were not convicted but who confessed to the crime in Life magazine. Maybe it could mention that of the 240 postconviction DNA exonerations in the U.S., 142 have been of African-Americans. And though it may be controversial, perhaps throw in the exoneration of four white officers for the beating of Rodney King in 1992. 

Add another GOP senator to the list of Republicans the White House is assailing for stalling health care reform in the name of politics. Sen. Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, trashed President Obama’s efforts on two different radio shows this week, implying that the GOP’s attempts to stall health care reform will bring about Obama’s “demise.” “We are plotting the demise on a week by week basis of where Bill Clinton was in 1993 and where Obama is today, and his demise ratio is greater than Clinton’s was in 1993,” Inhofe told the conservative Janet Parshall radio show on Wednesday. That same day, Inhofe went on the Hugh Hewitt show saying essentially the same thing. “I just hope the president keeps talking about it, keeps trying to rush it through,” Inhofe said. “We can stall it. And that’s going to be a huge gain for those of us who want to turn this thing over in the 2010 election.” Both clips surfaced late Thursday on the site Think Progress, a non-profit liberal group founded by John Podesta, who ran Obama’s White House transition committee.

How will the White House use these latest comments? Look for administration officials to suggest Inhofe and Jim DeMint, he of the now infamous “Waterloo” comment, are reflective of the mainstream within the Republican Party--that the GOP is playing politics with the process, while Obama is trying to help the American people. In an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel advanced this argument, telling host Steve Inskeep he “actually appreciate(s)” what Inhofe and DeMint said. “I’m different than everybody. I’m not going to criticize them. I complement them. They’re honest,” Emanuel said. “They’re being honest about what they see the stakes. And what I find interesting, I haven’t heard a lot of people in their party criticize them.” Talk about a backhanded compliment.

ABC just posted the transcript of its full interview with President Obama set to air tonight on Nightline. The talk is heavy on health care—Obama is a lot more feisty than he was last night in defending its details. At one point, Terry Moran asks Obama about the polls, which show he’s lost some of his momentum on health care. The president blows it off and blames his critics and their “scare tactics.” “What the polls are showing is, is that the more they focus on the political arguments that are out there, as opposed to my plan, the more anxious people get,” Obama tells ABC. “That's not a reflection of us walking through the American people on our plan. That's a reflection of the fact that this debate consistently degenerates into a certain pattern, which is, government takeover of health care and you know, this is going to be radical and, you know, somebody's going to get between you and your doctor.” Moran also asked Obama about his recent meeting with the director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, who had previously been critical of the health care reform and whether it was appropriate:

MORAN: So you weren't leaning on him?
OBAMA: Terry, we don't lean.
MORAN: You're the president. You can.
OBAMA: My job as president is to get the facts and the facts are on our side in this situation.

Speaking to a town hall in Shaker Heights, Ohio, President Obama just responded to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s announcement that the Senate won’t get to a health care reform bill until the fall. Obama, who said he hadn’t spoken to Reid, said the delay is “okay” as long as people weren’t postponing the vote in hopes of killing the legislation. “That's okay," he said. "My attitude is I want to get it right, but I also want to get it done promptly, and so long as I see folks working diligently and consistently, then I am comfortable with moving a process forward that builds as much consensus as possible.” Still, he added, “We’ve got to get it done, and we’ve got to get it done soon.” He pressed Congress to get him a bill by “the end of the year.” “I want it done by the fall,” he insisted. Here's an excerpt of Obama’s remarks today:

I think Senator Reid said today that he thought that we can get this bill out of the Senate Finance Committee by the time of recess, and that in early fall they will come back and actually vote on the bill. Now, I haven't talked to him today. My attitude is, I want to get it right, but I also want to get it done promptly. And so as long as I see folks working diligently and consistently, then I am comfortable with moving a process forward that builds as much consensus as possible.

With health care reform dominating Capitol Hill this week, you'd beforgiven for not knowing that it is also National Poker Week. Dozens ofdedicated players have descended on the Hill over the past few days toargue for the federal regulation of online poker. The Poker PlayersAlliance contends that poker should not be subject to the stringentregulations applied to other forms of online gambling because theirs isa game of skill and strategy involving complex risk calculations. Mostother forms of gambling, like slot machines, are simple matters ofluck, they claim. While dealing cards introduces an element of chance,poker aficionados say beyond that, it is a game that rewards learningand analysis. They believe that the act of placing a bet is more akinto "making a move" in other games than it is to basic gambling.

In his fourth primetime news conference, President Obama delivered an extended defense of his policies on health care and the economy—two issues where he’s lost significant ground in public opinion in recent weeks. And when we say extended, we literally mean extended. In the hour-long presser, Obama took just 10 questions. That’s a pretty low number even for him, as he took his time responding, if not always answering, each of the queries. During his first six months in office, Obama has become the master of using questions to simply get out his preferred talking points, and Wednesday was no exception. From the top of the news conference, Obama’s assignment was to explain this increasingly complicated push for reform and sell the American people on why it’s so necessary to do something now. “I realize that with all the charges and criticisms being thrown around in Washington, many Americans may be wondering, ‘What's in this for me?’” Obama said in his opening statement. “How does my family stand to benefit? …Tonight, I want to answer those questions.” Some of Obama’s responses were so long and so technical, it’s hard to judge if he actually accomplished that goal. Here’s a few more things that struck your Gaggler:

Professor Obama returns. Your Gaggler wondered all week if we’d see him at the presser, and we sure did, beginning with Obama’s initial statement where he cited data and figures to back up his argument that the nation can’t afford to wait on health reform. The difference between this Professor Obama and the one we saw emerge during stimulus talks: Passion. At his newser a month ago, Obama seemed to be aching for a fight as he went before reporters in the White House press briefing room. He was snippy and challenged reporters on their questions on health care. Last night, Obama was cautious and careful to stay on message. There wasn't much fight behind the message. He often seemed to ignore questions completely, only to use the time to communicate the points he needed to make. Take the first question of the night from the Associated Press’s Ben Feller, who asked Obama if he’s signaled to House and Senate leaders on policies he wants and which ones he doesn’t and how he thinks the bill should be paid for. Both were questions that Democrats have been increasingly calling on Obama to answer, but he didn’t tonight. “Before we talk about how to pay for it, let’s talk about what exactly needs to be done,” he said. For more than eight minutes, Obama rambled on the need for health reform, how costs will rise if we don’t tackle the problem now. By our clock, he went on for almost nine minutes but it was nothing we hadn’t heard before.

The White House just put out excerpts of what President Obama will say tonight at the top of tonight’s news conference. For the record, it's not much new:

Excerpts of the President's Opening Remarks at Tonight's News Conference

-As Prepared for Delivery-

That is why I’ve said that even as we rescue this economy from a full-blown crisis, we must rebuild it stronger than before.  And health insurance reform is central to that effort.
 
This is not just about the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance.  Reform is about every American who has ever feared that they may lose their coverage if they become too sick, or lose their job, or change their job.  It’s about every small business that has been forced to lay off employees or cut back on their coverage because it became too expensive.  And it’s about the fact that the biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid.
 
So let me be clear:  if we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit.  If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket.  If we do not act, 14,000 Americans will continue to lose their health insurance every single day.  These are the consequences of inaction.  These are the stakes of the debate we’re having right now.

In a few hours, President Obama goes before reporters in what will be his fourth primetime news conference. We’re told that Obama—not unlike his other pressers—will make a roughly 10-minute statement before taking questions from the media. The president will talk about, what else, health care reform, likely repeating some of talking points we’ve been hearing from him and his aides over the past few days. What will be different about tonight? On message, it’s still unclear. Obama has been trying for days, if not weeks, to use his own political capitol to press Congress into passing reform legislation before lawmakers head home for their summer break next month. But in spite of the blitz this week—not just on Obama’s part, but also his surrogates—it’s unclear if Obama is getting anywhere in those efforts.

While he has rightly noted the progress made on the issue, the president still faces some significant hurdles, and not just in terms of opposition from Republicans. If there’s any hope of getting health care reform through, Obama needs House and Senate Democrats, all of them, and right now, his party is splintered—and some of them are pointing fingers at the White House. They want Obama to take ownership of this bill, to tell them exactly what he wants in legislation and then to more aggressively push for it. We already know Obama wants a bill with a so-called public option, but unanswered so far is whether Obama would veto the legislation without it. He dodged the question during his last go-round with reporters. Will he answer it tonight?

Vice President Joe Biden is in the Ukraine today, where he’s been meeting top leaders there including Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. Officially, this is Biden’s 6th overseas trip since being sworn in as President Obama’s No. 2. But for Biden, these trips are a little like a reunion tour. Most of the leaders the Veep’s met with he already knew back from his travels as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. That means there’s an established rapport there, no awkward tip-toeing around—not that Biden would if he could. Reporters covering Biden on these trips usually get to hear some interesting moments between the two leaders—not the standard chit chat on how much they enjoyed meeting one another and how they'll work closely together, yadda yadda. Take for instance Biden’s sit-down with Yushchenko today, which just so happened to occur in a bar. (The two were allegedly drinking Cokes, according to the Veep’s office. Uh huh.) According to the pool report, the press was taken in to witness the two leaders in the middle of their conversation. One reporter overheard Yushchenko talking about Ukrainian churches. A few moments later, Biden was overheard complementing Yushchenko on his country’s, um, population."I cannot believe that a Frenchman visiting Kiev went back home and told his colleagues he discovered something and didn't say he discovered the most beautiful women in the world. That's my observation,” Biden declared. "It's certain you have so many beautiful women." Yep, that sounds like our Joe. For the record, your Gaggler, who traveled with Biden on trips to Belgium, the Balkans and Lebanon earlier this year, can confirm this is really how Biden talks with every foreign leader. Come to think of it, your Gaggler is pretty she heard Biden say roughly the same thing about the women in Sarajevo. (And we already know he loves those girls in Texas.) Bottom line: the diplomacy seems to work. The other leaders love Biden. No word on Yushchenko's reaction today, but we're guessing he didn't disagree with the Veep's assessment.

In the last two weeks, political commentators have expressed doubts over President Obama's time frame for healthcare reform. Meanwhile, even some Democrat lawmakers appear to be getting cold feet. In response, Obama is relentlessly pitching his plan. He has spoken about healthcare on eight out of the last nine days, and he's scheduled to hold a town hall meeting on the topic this Thursday. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is one of the few politicians in the country with first hand experience of steering major health care reform through the legislative process. The reforms he enacted in Massachusetts have been critizied for being costly, but they've also managed to extend coverage to a significant number of uninsured people. By 2007, the proportion of uninsured people in Massachusetts was the lowest in the country.

I spoke to Romney about his experience with healthcare reform this morning.  His cautionary words for Obama? Slow down. Here are some excerpts from our conversation:

What do you think needs to happen over the next couple of weeks if President Obama's deadline for healthcare reform is to be met?

I think the President ought to hit the reset button. I think it is critical that he have the participation, involvement, and support of people on both sides of the aisle, as well as people in various sectors of the health economy. If we are going to have a dramatic shift in the nature of so large a part of our economy  then it needs to be something that has been thoroughly vetted and has received great support. Out of a desire to move very quickly, while his support is highest, he has skipped the critical steps of educating, involving, and evolving his own plans to meet the perspectives of the great majority of our citizens.

It sounds like you are encouraging the President to slow down. Aren't there risks in delaying?

He's in a very difficult position. We faced a very similar question [in Massachusetts] as we began our process. We spent over two years putting together a health care plan and then building support for it on both sides of the aisle - working with hospitals, providers, doctors, business groups, labor groups, advocates for the poor. We involved all of these parties, and it took a long time, but what we ended up with was a bill that passed the legislature - if you combine the House and the Senate - 198 to 2.  (continued after the jump)

Keeping up the media blitz, President Obama was back in front of the cameras this afternoon pushing health care reform. Speaking to reporters in the Rose Garden, Obama didn’t really say anything new. He made no new arguments or talked up no new details in the bills Congress is debating. But as the House and Senate struggle to find compromise on several significant issues—including how to pay for it all—Obama took a step back and tried to accentuate the areas of common ground the two sides do have. “I know there is a tendency in Washington to accentuate the differences instead of underscoring common ground,” Obama said. “But make no mistake: We are closer than ever before to the reform that the American people need, and we're going to get the job done.”

Among the examples Obama cited: The bill pushed by House Democrats as well as the legislation adopted last week by the Senate HELP committee include provisions that would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions. Both bills include a so-called public plan that would, in Obama’s words, “keep insurance companies honest” and increase competition to lower costs. He claimed the bills would lower government waste. And twice, Obama insisted that Americans would be able to stick with their current health coverage if they want to.  “If you like you’re plan, you’ll be able to keep it,” Obama said, in spite of the fact both administration officials and Congress have previously suggested they might not be able to keep insurance companies from dramatically changing current coverage should reform pass. In fact all of these proposals are pretty iffy, as Obama himself acknowledged yesterday in a conference call with bloggers. The moment to watch, in the prez’s opinion, is when House and Senate negotiators sit down to begin negotiating a joint bill. “Conference is where these differences will get ironed out,” Obama said, according to the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein.

Obama's much vaunted grassroots organizing will be tested over the next two weeks as it swings into action to support the President's health care agenda. Since the campaign, Obama's field operation has morphed into a group called "Organizing for America", which tries to capitalize on the formidable activism of Obama volunteers in last year's election. Today, the group's director Mitch Stewart sent a mass email to supporters, attempting to mobilize them around Senator Jim DeMint's remark that health care could be Obama's "Waterloo". In an email entitled "It will break him" (a direct quote from DeMint), Stewart urges his members to "stand with President Obama on health care reform" and sign a declaration of support. No doubt analysts will be examining the success of OFA's declaration to divine how long his coattails are, and determine if the polls showing that trust in the President has declined are accurate. It will also be an interesting proxy for whether the popularity of Obama-the-idea holds in the face of Obama-the-policy-maker.

(Interestingly, Stewart does not call the declaration a petition. He opts for a more forceful term - "declaration". Stewart also says the signatures he collects will be published in newspapers across the country, which seems an odd and perhaps flawed notion. It may prove a disincentive for some - not everyone wants their political persuasions to receive national attention.)

The Senate today voted to reject a request for $1.75 billion to fund the F-22 fighter-jet program. This is a bright spot for the president amid a swirl of criticism over his health-care plans, rising jobless numbers, and falling poll numbers. And it's evidence that he retains considerable sway over congressional Democrats. Obama threatened to veto the defense-appropriations bill if it contained funding for more than four F-22s, but it was unclear until today whether Democrats would fall in line. Not all of them did─this afternoon's vote crossed party lines. Republicans including John McCain and Judd Gregg voted to veto funding, while Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman had hoped the program would continue. Regardless, this is a significant political victory for both the White House and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, saving them both from potential embarrassment. Gates has been an ardent proponent of scrapping the troubled F-22 program. In a speech in Chicago last Thursday, he argued for the need to fundamentally reshape how the Pentagon does business, namely how it develops and purchases weapons systems. Today's vote represents a concrete step toward achieving that end.

The F-22 Raptor was developed in the 1980s as a replacement for the F-15. But it was conceived during the Cold War, when the largest threat to American security was a techologically advanced Soviet Union, and it has been riddled with problems. The F-22 has crashed multiple times during test flights, most recently in March, when a crash resulted in the death of test pilot David Cooley. And it's expensive to operate─about $44,000 per hour of flight. The plane has never flown in Afghanistan or Iraq. Gates would like to see the funds spent on other Defense Department priorities.

Obama: Love me, love my jeans. Photo by Pete Souza/White House

Yesterday afternoon, Barack Obama sat down with The Today Show’s Meredith Vieira, who promptly asked about the most pressing issue facing this young president: What was up with those jeans he wore to the All-Star Game last week? They looked like Levi 501s. Entertainment Weekly hilariously dubbed them “Dad jeans.” It was a wardrobe choice that didn’t exactly seem fitting for a guy generally considered pretty stylish. Why, pray tell, did Michelle let him out the door looking like that? Obama, for his part, didn’t even try to defend the jeans. “Here's my attitude: Michelle, she looks fabulous; I'm a little frumpy,” Obama told Vieira. “You know, basically, up until a few years ago, I only had four suits. She used to tease me because they'd get really shiny. I hate to shop. Those jeans are comfortable. And for those of you who, you know, want your president to, you know, look great in his tight jeans, I'm sorry, I'm not the guy.” So no low riders, Viera asked. “Sorry, yes,” Obama declared. “It just doesn’t fit me. I’m not 20.”

Medvedev: And here's the button for my trap door... Photo by Pete Souza/White House

The White House updated its official Flickr with several photos from President Obama’s recent jaunt to Moscow. To sum up: Barack and Dmitry look like total BFFs; Putin likes weird-looking desserts; and while the White House did its best to blur out the details, it looks like the Prez has some pretty cool Inspector Gadget-type toys.

Our colleague Michael Isikoff has a big scoop today: A task force advising President Obama on closing Guantanamo Bay has delayed its first big report amid continued divisions over what to do with detainees. And we’re not simply talking days here. The report, which would detail a long-term strategy on how to deal with prisoners, has been put off for a “few months,” a senior administration official tells Isikoff. That raises questions about whether Obama will be able to meet his January deadline of closing Gitmo. A key area of disagreement: Whether the U.S. should hold some prisoners under “indefinite detention.” As you’ll recall, Obama himself suggested he has serious reservations about the policy in a recent interview with AP. But some administration officials are insisting Obama has no choice. Here's Isikoff:

Three administration officials familiar with the process said the detention task force, which is jointly run by aides to Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, did agree that the Obama administration should continue to claim the right to hold some Guantanamo inmates indefinitely as "combatants" under the "laws of war," without charging them either in criminal courts or in military commissions. That proposal is sure to prove controversial among human rights groups, which say any such "indefinite detention" violates civil liberties and is virtually indistinguishable from legal claims made by President Bush.
 
But the officials say that, as much as the concept of indefinite detention is distasteful to the president and his legal advisors, there is simply no alternative for dealing with potentially dozens of detainees whom the administration doesn't want to release because they are thought to be too dangerous, but can't bring to trial for lack of evidence. But one of the officials insisted the Obama task force will not ultimately endorse the sweeping claims of executive authority made by the Bush administration. The legal basis for detention will rely largely on the narrower 2001 congressional authorization to use military force against the perpetrators of 9/11.

Twice last week, President Obama ripped “naysayers” of his health care reform plan. Phase one of his health care blitz this week: Calling out his opponents more directly. Speaking to reporters at the Children’s National Medical Center here in Washington, Obama cited a remark that Sen. Jim DeMint said last week when speaking to a conference call of GOP activists about health care reform. DeMint, who described the issue as “D-Day for freedom in America,” was rallying the troops to push back on plans for government-run health care. “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo,” DeMint told the group, according to the Politico’s Ben Smith. “It will break him.”

Speaking this afternoon, Obama read DeMint’s quote verbatim, though he attributed it to a “Republican senator” and not to DeMint by name. “Think about that,” Obama said of DeMint’s remarks. “This isn’t about me. This isn’t about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America’s families, breaking America’s businesses and breaking America’s economy. And we can’t afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care, not this time, not now.” Obama vowed to fight against “the politics of the moment.”

DeMint’s remarks provided an obvious opening to the White House to go after Republicans who have been attempting to slow down the work on health care reform by accusing them of doing so for political reasons. The problem: It’s not just Republicans asking to slow the process down.

After a weekend at Camp David, President Obama is back at the White House today where he’ll begin his work week speaking on, what else, health care reform. Obama is scheduled to visit the Children’s National Medical Center here in Washington, where he’ll sit down with doctors before talking to reporters. In the words of Obama’s official WH schedule, he’ll use the moment to “press on health care reform.” Later today, he’ll no doubt bring up the topic again, when he sits down for interviews with NBC’s Today Show and PBS’s Jim Lehrer. As we blogged on Friday, it’s all an effort to seize the bully pulpit. Obama wants to use his personal popularity with the nation to get this health care bill through Congress.

But there are more signs today that Obama might not have the sway he needs on the issue. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll out today shows that while Obama’s overall approval rating remains high, the public isn’t so keen on his handling of health care. Back in April, around the time of his 100-day mark in office, Obama’s approval rating on health care was 57 percent. Now, as he marks his sixth month in office, Obama’s rating has fallen to 49 percent. Of those polled, 44 percent disapprove of how Obama has handled the issue. Back in April, that number was only 29 percent.

Perhaps most striking is where Obama seems to be losing most of his support: independent voters.

Our in-box quickly filled up last night upon word of legendary journalist Walter Cronkite’s death. Sen. John McCain, who made his first post-POW years visit to Vietnam with Cronkite, called him the most “influential newsman of our time.” “I will never forget our memorable visit together to Hanoi,” McCain said. Former President George H.W. Bush, meanwhile, called Cronkite a “towering respected figure.” “Many Americans heard it from Walter first that President Kennedy had died, or that the man had walked on the moon,” he said. Even President Obama added his own tribute. Here’s his full statement, courtesy the White House:

For decades, Walter Cronkite was the most trusted voice in America. His rich baritone reached millions of living rooms every night, and in an industry of icons, Walter set the standard by which all others have been judged. He was there through wars and riots, marches and milestones, calmly telling us what we needed to know. And through it all, he never lost the integrity he gained growing up in the heartland. But Walter was always more than just an anchor. He was someone we could trust to guide us through the most important issues of the day; a voice of certainty in an uncertain world. He was family.  He invited us to believe in him, and he never let us down. This country has lost an icon and a dear friend, and he will be truly missed.

In a last-minute event at the White House this afternoon, President Obama insisted that “now is not the time to slow down” the push for health care reform. “Now is certainly not the time to lose heart,” Obama said. “Make no mistake, if we step back from this challenge, at this moment, we are consigning our children to a future of skyrocketing premiums and crushing deficits. There’s no argument about that.” It was the fifth day in a row that Obama has gone before cameras to push for an overhaul of the nation’s troubled health care system, but the president today seemed to be on more on defense than on offense.

While Obama has marked some significant victories in the past few days— the Senate HELP committee passed its version of a reform bill on Tuesday and two House committees today approved theirs—a growing number of senators are pushing the White House to allow more time to debate the intricacies of a bill that is inherently complicated. Among the biggest stumbling blocks: How much will reform actually cost and where will the government get the money to pay for it? On Thursday, the head of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office testified on Capitol Hill that the reform bill would actually not to do much to stop the nations skyrocketing budget deficit, as Obama has said. At the White House, Obama pushed back, insisting he wants to a sign a bill that actually will eliminate waste and the slow the growth of health care costs and that he’s "confident" Congress will adopt those proposals.

We really thought Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was doing okay again. After months and months in which he literally looked like he wanted to die right on the spot, Geithner has regularly been spotted smiling, even laughing. You read that right: Laughing. Your Gaggler personally saw Geithner getting his chuckle on with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the G-20 meetings this past spring. Truth be told, it was like a rainbow in the sky. After all, no one, not even Tim Geithner, should look so sad all the time. It’s just too depressing.

But, alas, maybe it was all a front. Hat tip to New York Magazine, we've learned the Treasury Department is looking to hire someone to come in and teach people over there how to laugh again. No joke. Here’s the job blurb, via the Federal Business Opportunities site:

The Contractor shall conduct two, 3-hour, Humor in the Workplace programs that will discuss the power of humor in the workplace, the close relationship between humor and stress, and why humor is one of the most important ways that we communicate in business and office life. Participants shall experience demonstrations of cartoons being created on the spot. The contractor shall have the ability to create cartoons on the spot about BPD jobs. The presenter shall refrain from using any foul language during the presentation. This is a business environment and we need the presenter to address a business audience.

You get that: They don’t want some Eddie Murphy Raw business going down. They want something safe, something like, oh, Dilbert. Afterwards, they want Treasury employees to be able to get the “importance and power” of humor in the workplace and understand how joking around—that is, responsible joking around—can alleviate stress and improve relationships with co-workers. We can only imagine how that’s going to go down: “Larry, you can’t be so sensitive about those jokes about you falling asleep on the job. Laugh, Larry. Laugh!” It sounds like the makings of a great episode of The Office. But if it’s what it takes to keep a smile on Geithner’s face, it’s clearly a must-do. We’ll say this: the ad alone made your Gaggler laugh. So that’s a good start.

UPDATE: Looks like they don't want to laugh after all. According to an updated version of the ad, Treasury "has determined that it no longer has a need for this requirement." Bummer.

Another week, another sex scandal: Word broke late yesterday that former GOP Rep. Chip Pickering is the latest politico in trouble for allegedly cheating on his wife. Pickering’s now-estranged wife, Leisha, has filed suit against his alleged mistress, whom she says busted up their marriage and ruined her husband’s political career. The alleged other woman, Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd, was Pickering’s college sweetheart. The suit claims Pickering, who left Congress in January, began having an affair with Creekmore Byrd when he was still in the House and that their relationship ended both of their marriages. What’s so juicy about this latest dust-up? Well, while he was in Congress, Pickering just so happened to bunk at the increasingly infamous rowhouse at 133 C Street SE here in Washington, a “Christian fellowship home” where he was roomies with John Ensign and where Mark Sanford used to hang out. Ensign and Sanford, as the world well knows, have been caught up in their own sex scandals in recent weeks. C Street is even mentioned in Leisha Pickering’s lawsuit: She says her husband and Creekmore Byrd snuck around there. Scandal!

So what exactly is going on at this house on C Street? The Washington Post had a good profile a few weeks ago about the increasingly curious rowhouse, which is owned by a secretive religious group that encourages lawmakers to promote Christian ideals in public policy. At least five GOP members of Congress currently rent rooms there, including Ensign.

President Obama just released a statement on the bombings in Jakarta, Indonesia overnight. Suicide bombers almost simultaneously struck two luxury hotels—the Ritz Carlton and the Marriott—killing at least eight people and injuring more than 50. The violence hits close to home for Obama, who spent a significant chunk of his childhood in Jakarta. When he was 6, Obama moved there with his mom and stepfather, who was originally from Indonesia. Obama lived there until he was 10. During the campaign, Obama often referred to Jakarta as “my old hometown.” Here's Obama's statement this morning, courtesy the White House:

I strongly condemn the attacks that occurred this morning in Jakarta, and extend my deepest condolences to all of the victims and their loved ones. The American people stand by the Indonesian people in this difficult time, and the U.S. government stands ready to help the Indonesian government respond to and recover from these outrageous attacks as a friend and partner. Indonesia has been steadfast in combating violent extremism, and has successfully curbed terrorist activity within its borders. However, these attacks make it clear that extremists remain committed to murdering innocent men, women and children of any faith in all countries. We will continue to partner with Indonesia to eliminate the threat from these violent extremists, and we will be unwavering in supporting a future of security and opportunity for the Indonesian people.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings this week will be remembered as a civilized affair. The fiery exchanges and dramatic grandstanding that have characterized past confirmations were all but absent. Yet, tame as these were, Supreme Court confirmation hearings are always a critical barometer of power in the nation's capital: who's got it, who wants it, and who's losing it. We asked two of our experts—Howard Fineman and Stuart Taylor Jr.—to weigh in on the biggest winners and losers of the hearings.

Barack Obama: The president's first Supreme Court pick came early in his tenure, and, true to his trademark calm, he made a no-mess, no-fuss selection. "It has been inevitable since the day she was nominated that she will be confirmed by a fairly wide margin. In that sense, she and President Obama are winners," says Taylor. But Obama did take a few knocks in the hearings. Sotomayor rejected his purported judicial philosophy—the notion that judges should have empathy. She told the panel of senators that she doesn't approach judging the way the president does, and that judges can't rely on what is in their heart; they must apply the law. "This will make it harder for Obama to give the next nomination to an overt, full-throated liberal," Taylor says. Still, her hearings were smooth and her approval ratings high. Overall it was an easy win for the president. Verdict: Winner.

Lindsey Graham: The charismatic South Carolina senator's legal background was on full display as he took turns grilling and charming the nominee. Taylor thinks his comments were among the most perceptive. Unfortunately for Graham, it was his sillier moments that made the nightly news (and Jon Stewart's show), as on the first day, when he brazenly told Sotomayor she'd get confirmed unless she had "a complete meltdown." Fineman calls Graham "brilliant but erratic, seemingly kind but also duplicitous. Having said that only a meltdown could derail her, he tried to create one." Verdict: Loser.

The White House Briefing Team: That Sotomayor looked poised, calm, and prepared throughout long days of scrutiny is in part attributable to her excellent coaching. The White House team, including Biden adviser Ron Klain, White House counsel Greg Craig and newcomer Karen Dunn did an outstanding job schooling her. Fineman declares their preparations "airtight." He also praises the White House's spin team, which aggressively fed the press updates that rebutted every GOP attack within minutes. "They treated it like a presidential debate," Fineman says. The Republicans, on the other hand, were invisible. Verdict: Winners.

Liberal Legal Minds: Taylor says that liberal court watchers hoping to hear the nominee defend their philosophy of judging will be feeling sorely disappointed. "She sounded like Alito," he says of Sotomayor's comments about her approach to judging. "Instead of taking refuge in ambiguity and fuzzy generalities, she really sounded like a conservative in what she thinks judges should do. That is fairly consistent with her judicial record." Verdict: Losers.

Al Franken: Fineman and Taylor agree that the rookie senator acquitted himself admirably throughout the hearings. While fans and comics were hoping for an uproarious performance, Franken was serious, carefully prepared, yet still entertaining. "Earnest and deadpan funny," says Fineman. Taylor notes that Franken managed to score some points against Republican declarations that the word "abortion" is not in the Constitution. Franken held up a copy of the Constitution and, with Sotomayor's help, pointed out that the words "birth control" and "privacy" aren't in it either. Verdict: Winner.

Perry Mason: Sotomayor cited the fictional defense attorney as an early inspiration for her legal career. In one of the more lighthearted moments of the week, Franken observed, “It amazes me that you wanted to become a prosecutor based on the show, because in Perry Mason the prosecutor on that show lost every week.” There were a couple of cases Mason lost, but neither Franken nor Sotomayor could recall one (1963's “The Case of the Deadly Verdict” is the most famous). Why did Mason make our list? “Now everyone knows he actually lost a case,” says Fineman. Verdict: Loser.

Honorable Mentions: Fineman is pleasantly surprised by Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse: "Almost no one had ever heard him speak. Turns out he is an elegant and well-informed speaker and thinker." Taylor thinks chairman Patrick Leahy ran a "generally dignifed proceeding" in his first Supreme Court confirmation hearings as chair. On the Republican side, Taylor thinks "the once combative Orrin Hatch is getting so mellow that he may ripen and then rot," and that Jeff Sessions may have been a little too aggressive in questioning Sotomayor's truthfulness. "Remarkably, at least three committee Democrats—Charles Schumer, Amy Klobuchar, and Richard Durbin—complimented their Republican counterparts for questioning the nominee in a tough but fair way," Taylor says. "No senator came across as a fool or a bully, as best I could tell." And finally, props to Klobuchar, who's been representing Minnesota alone until recently. She  won fans earlier this year with her hilarious speech at the Washington Press Club Foundation. She impressed again this week. According to Taylor, she "came across very well—smart, decent, nice."

Daniel Stone contributed reporting.

[KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images]

Leave it to Al Franken, now in his seventh day as a U.S. senator, to cut to the chase. Rather than ask Sonia Sotomayor even more airy questions about case law and judicial precedence, Franken figured the best way to decide whether to give her the job was to treat her hearings like a job interview. Why do you think you'd be a good Supreme Court justice? he posed her simply. Sotomayor asked if she could paint him a picture: "Can I tell you a story?"  Franken agreed. She took the senator and the hearing room back to the early days of her career, when she was being considered for a federal judgeship in New York. Her mom, Celina, upon hearing that her daughter could land the prestigious position, was as pleased as any mother would be. But all of the prospects that initially excited Mom─big money, foreign travel, cushy client benefits─the judge-to-be systematically shot down, explaining that the job wouldn't come with many, if any, frills. Rather, it was about public service. She explained she had a "sense of importance about the rule of law, how it's central to our society," and described her passion that "led me to want to be a lawyer first and now a judge. I can't think of any greater service that I can give to the country than if I were given the privilege to be a justice of the Supreme Court." The answer was good enough for Franken, but some at the press tables were wondering how Sotomayor, seasoned in legal-speak, could have spun another classic job-interview question: what's your biggest weakness?

For four days now, Judge Sonia Sotomayor has been asked and answered dozens of questions, some about her record, some about her personal history. Though no issue has been the topic of as many questions as Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment, a remark the judge made in speeches on more than half a dozen occasions, suggesting that her life experiences as a Latina woman would lead to better judicial conclusions than conclusions by white men. The members questioning her on the Senate Judiciary Committee─all of whom are white, most of whom are men─have taken the comment as evidence that Sotomayor would be a judicial radical on the bench, legislating the will of the demographic groups she represents. So everyone in the hearing room took notice when Sen. Lindsey Graham (who's led the way, by far, in condescending questions) tried to put the issue to rest. As his time to ask questions was winding down, he gave Sotomayor the floor. "Last question on the 'wise Latino [sic] woman' comment: to those who may be bothered by that, what do you say?" Careful to choose the right words, Sotomayor searched for something definitive. "I regret that I have offended some people [pause]. I believe that my life demonstrates that that was not my intent, to leave the impression that some have taken from my words." Then, surprising virtually everyone, Graham squinted his eyes, nodded slightly, and gave in. "You know what, Judge?" he asked dramatically. "I agree with you. Good luck."

Although there's some superserious work churning through the halls of power on Capitol Hill at the moment─confirming a Supreme Court justice, reinventing health care─there's also some summer fun in the works. It always happens around this time of year: Congress is marching inexorably toward August recess and staffers start to taste freedom. It's almost like the last few weeks of senior year. So it's the perfect time for lobbyists to plan attention-grabbing stunts. Yesterday it was PETA's turn. The animal-rights group hosted their annual Veggie Dog Lunch, giving out around 400 meat-free hot dogs to passersby. But the main attraction was the servers: a pair of Playboy Playmates, clad only in lettuce-leaf and rhinestone bikinis, and, of course, heels. (You can see video of the event here.)

And tonight? Well this event comes from the opposite end of the culinary spectrum. Courtesy of the Western Business Roundtable, politicos will have a chance to sample Rocky Mountain Oysters. No, they're not actual oysters. Rather it's a euphemism for bull testicles, considered a delicacy in some parts. Apparently the "oysters" are breaded, fried, and served with a selection of dipping sauces. The dish is sometimes called "Montana tendergroins" or "cowboy caviar." According to the Roundtable's press release, they're trying to bring back some "cojones" to the Hill. Here's Roundtable CEO Jim Sims: "Hill staff love them, although I'm not certain that everyone knows the dish's derivation.  A number of members of Congress from the West come by early just to make sure they can grab some before they are gone. I can't say that I have seen many news media folks try them, but hope springs eternal in the quest to better educate folks in the Beltway media crowd about life outside the Beltway." Giddyup!

Gallup has released the results of a survey about potential GOP 2012 nominees, and it contains much good news for Mitt Romney fans. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, the former Massachusetts governor just beats out Sarah Palin in the preferred-nominee stakes (26%-21%), with Mike Huckabee coming in third (19%), followed by Newt Gingrich (14%). Two sitting governors whom pundits consider strong contenders─Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty and Mississippi's Haley Barbour─both polled poorly, but that's likely due to their low name recognition outside the Beltway.

The other good news for Romney is that his unfavorable rating among all voters has dropped substantially since he exited last year's presidential race. Back then, his unfavorables far outweighed his favorability: 46% to 34%. In this latest poll, that dynamic has flipped, with 37% of respondents viewing Romney favorably and 29% unfavorably. That's a 17-point drop in his unfavorables. However, the number of people expressing "no opinion" about Romney has increased. This could cut either way, but fortunately for him, he's got three years to win them over. 

There's good news for Palin, too: her resignation doesn't appear to have altered her overall favorability ratings, which seem largely unchanged since the election. The country remains divided about her, with 43% viewing her favorably and 45% unfavorably. The only group that appears to have been affected by the resignation is Republicans. Her unfavorability among GOPers has risen, but she's still overwhelmingly popular with them: 72% view her favorably. You can read the full results here.

The poll illustrates an interesting disconnect, and one that should be of concern to the Palin camp. She's clearly the most popular figure in the Republican Party, yet Republicans aren't sure they want her as president. Does she need more time to learn her craft? Maybe Republicans are satisfied just to have her voice in the party, but don't see her leading it. Maybe GOPers would prefer to see her on TV than in the Oval Office. What do you think? Post your thoughts in the comments and I'll respond later today.

Sonia Sotomayor knows exactly what she must do to be confirmed, and that's very little. If she doesn't say too much, she can't muddy the wide respect across party lines that all but guarantee her a spot on the high court. But even if legal experts aren't learning much about what kind of justice Sotormayor may be, members of the judiciary committee (as well as Sotomayor herself) are doing their best to keep the mood light. Here are the top five moments so far from the judge's third day under the lights.

1. Well then I'll do it myself: You can’t rely on anyone else to make a point better than you can do it yourself. So when Sen. Tom Coburn, a practicing doctor, wanted to press Sotomayor on abortion, he did his own dirty work. “Let's say I'm 38 weeks pregnant and we discover a small spina bifida sack on…the lower part of the back on my baby. And I feel like I just can't handle a child with that. Would it be legal in this country to terminate that child's life?” Over some snickers from the press table, Sotomayor declined to answer, saying the issue might come before the court. Really? Because we’d be very surprised.

2. Wake-up call: Just as Sotomayor was in the middle of a long and rather rambly answer, the lights in the room went off but were quickly picked up by a back-up power generator. Sotomayor stuttered slightly as everyone in the room looked around confused. “I hope I can go on…” she said. Leahy shot back to the room “I just want every to know that that was not a comment from above. I have certain powers as chairman but not that much."

For the past two days, we’ve been watching Patrick Leahy run the show at Sonia Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation hearing. He’s the gruff-talking Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the guy who keeps close watch on the clock to make sure senators aren’t going over their allotted time for questioning and so on. Perhaps you know him best as the man former VP Dick Cheney told to go “F--- Himself” a few years ago. But your Gaggler can’t stop thinking about another big Leahy role: His bit part in one of her favorite films of 2008, The Dark Knight.

As you’ll see in the clip above, Leahy shows up in the scene where the Joker, played by the late great Heath Ledger, storms a party at Bruce Wayne’s penthouse. Leahy is more than just your average extra. He actually trades a few lines with Ledger, who eventually won a posthumous Oscar for the role. In the film, Leahy tries to stand up to the Joker who promptly puts a switchblade to the senator’s mouth and threatens to carve a ghastly smile on his face. Leahy, we must say, looks convincingly frightened. Perhaps it’s all the Batman-related acting gigs he’s had before. Leahy, who brags that he’s the biggest Batman fan in Washington, voiced the role of a governor in Batman: The Animated Series. And he had a non-speaking role in the absolutely worst Batman movie ever: Batman & Robin. (Senator, how could you? George Clooney isn’t that cool.) But Leahy’s obsession has extended well beyond film. A few years ago, he wrote the forward for a Batman anthology and he once contributed to a Batman comic about land mines. So when you’re watching Leahy chair the Sotomayor hearings, just think: That guy almost got knifed by the Joker. No wonder he's not scared of Jeff Sessions.

Obama throws out the first pitch at a 2005 White Sox game. Photo by Anne Heisenfelt/AP

President Obama is headed to Michigan this afternoon where he’s scheduled to make remarks about the economy, job training and education. But it’s Obama’s second stop of the day that has folks over at the White House most excited. From Detroit, the president will fly to St. Louis, where he’ll throw out the ceremonial first pitch at tonight’s Major League Baseball All-Star game. Joining Obama on Air Force One: baseball great Willie Mays. Now it’s no secret that Obama likes basketball, but he’s a pretty big baseball fan, too. There was rarely a day on the campaign that Obama wasn’t spotted wearing his beloved Chicago White Sox hat, and we’re told he wears it with almost the same frequency during down time at the White House. That prompted a funny debate among White House aides last week: Should Obama wear his White Sox gear during an official appearance at what is supposed to be a team neutral event?

Since announcing her resignation as governor of Alaska in an unexpected and jarring press conference two weeks ago, pundits have been pondering Sarah Palin's next step. Today her strategy is emerging: she intends to be a serious, national conservative voice. In another surprising move, Palin has penned an op-ed in The Washington Post, a paper she'd ordinarily decry as an engine of the liberal media elite. The piece is an attack on what she calls "President Obama's cap-and-tax energy plan." We presume she is referring to the Waxman-Markey bill which recently passed in the House. (Oddly, the White House was conspiciously absent from most of that bill's negotiations, so calling it Obama's plan is a bit of a stretch.) Palin is playing to her strengths. Aside from her social conservatism, energy was the issue where she was perceived to have the most credibility during last year's election.

The op-ed contains none of her trademark folksiness. This is not Sarah the Hockey Mom. It is a serious piece that tries to position her as an authority on the subject ("Those who understand the issue ..."), invokes the preferred GOP language ("cap-and-tax" rather than "cap-and-trade"), and points to her success ("In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history.") Admittedly she uses an exclamation point ("But the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive!"), but that is the only visible sign of the jittery, idiosyncratic Palin present at her recent press conference. The Palin evident in this op-ed is an America-first conservative; a supply-sider who's worried about costs and jobs. This is perhaps the first step in her reinvention as a politician of national stature, despite not having an elected pulpit to preach from. It's the Mitt Romney model.

Unfortunately for Palin, it doesn't look like she's read the bill or talked to the numerous industry representatives who support it. After reading Palin's op-ed, you'd be forgiven for believing that the nation's coal plants will be shut tomorrow, nuclear power and natural gas will be outlawed, and that carbon allowances will be costly in the first instance. None of this is true. Under Waxman-Markey, coal will remain a critical part of America's energy equation for decades, although coal burning utilities will be encouraged to invest in cleaner technologies. There are targets for renewable sources of energy, but their implementation is a long way off. So far in fact, that many environmentalists are aggravated, but the costs of integrating renewables into the grid will be spread out over time. A vast number of carbon allowances will be handed out for free initially, with costs ramping up over time, thus smoothing the impact of cap-and-trade on consumers. Nuclear will become a more attractive option over the longer term as the price on carbon increases, but the ramp is so slow that utilities will have ample time to invest in plant construction─again, so there isn't a price shock. There's simply no evidence to suggest that natural-gas demand will decline. Energy utilities will still need baseload power to service customers 24/7 (something wind and solar generators are still working on─their production is more variable). Natural gas has a smaller carbon footprint than coal, so its appeal to utilities will likely increase. 

But does the reality of Waxman-Markey matter? Not really. Palin isn't trying to convince fence-sitters that cap-and-trade is a bad idea. And she won't persuade anyone who supports it that she's right. She's speaking to conservatives who, already suspicious of environmentalists messing with how they live, are looking for an national advocate. And, most importantly, she's signalling to the Beltway that she expects to be taken seriously. But if that is going to happen, she may want to do her homework more thoroughly.

After the wind blew over one of his TelePrompter screens and broke it during a graduation speech in May, Vice President Joe Biden jokingly wondered how he would break the news to President Obama. “What am I going to tell the president?” Biden asked the crowd. “Tell him his teleprompter is broken? What will he do then?” Well now we know. Obama was in the middle of a speech defending his economic stimulus plan at the White House yesterday afternoon when suddenly one of his TelePrompter screens came loose and crashed to the ground. The glass plate loudly shattered into several pieces, catching Obama off guard. “Oh goodness!” he said, peering over the side of his lectern. “Sorry about that guys.” He was speaking to a group of mayors and urban policy types about efforts to help cities make it through the tough economy, and they giggled a bit as the president looked at the glass at his feet. (Those savages!) Barely skipping a beat, Obama then went back to his remarks, struggling just a little bit initially as he read from the lone remaining screen and his notes.

Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP

How exciting was the first day of Sonia Sotomayor's SCOTUS confirmation hearing? This picture says it all: Here's Sotomayor's nephews, Conner and Corey Sotomayor, snoozing away at her hearing today. We're not throwing stones here. Truth be told, after nearly five hours of opening statements, your Gaggler felt like this, too--and it wasn't the jet lag from President Obama's trip last week, either.

If there’s anything we really learned from the first day of Sonia Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation hearings, it’s this: senators LOVE their sports analogies. Just ask John Cornyn, who invoked football when talking about Sotomayor’s time as an appellate court judge. “A lower-court judge is like the quarterback who executes the plays—not the coach who calls the plays,” Cornyn said. “That means many of your cases don’t tell us much about your judicial philosophy. But a few of your opinions do raise questions—because they suggest the kinds of plays you’d call if you were promoted to the coaching staff.” Hmm. OK, yeah, we get it. (For the record, in Cornyn’s honor, your Gaggler is totally coining a new catchphrase—“activist quarterbacks”—for the rogue players who don’t listen to the coach. You heard it here first, ESPN!)

Everybody else went with baseball—and for this we hold Chief Justice John Roberts responsible. “Judges are like umpires,” Roberts said in his 2005 confirmation hearings. “Umpires don’t make the rules, they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules.” Well, Democrats have apparently been aching to push back on that premise for the last four years, as nearly every single one of them brought up the “umpire” argument in some way or another during their opening statements today. “Many can debate whether during his four years on the Supreme Court he actually has called pitches as they come or has tried to change the rules,” Schumer said, speaking of Roberts. Sotomayor’s record, he insisted, shows that she’s “simply called balls and strikes for 17 years.” Sen. Dick Durbin, meanwhile, got in a little dig at Roberts’s umpire analogy, noting, “It’s hard to see home plate from right field.” Ooh, face!

No doubt this isn't the last we've heard of these analogies. It's a given that someone will bring up the "umpire" when senators begin questioning Sotomayor tomorrow. Or maybe Sotomayor will bring up a whole other sports analogy on her own. Judges are like ... NBA refs?

...

Sonia Sotomayor was a few sentences into her remarks when she turned from the witness table and faced the first row of guests behind her. There sat her mother and her family. "Thank you mom," the judge whispered.

I was sitting a few rows away and can tell you not only that it was as genuine a private moment as you see on the Hill, but also one that encapsulates the difficulties the GOP will have in trying to derail the judge's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

With that Sanjay Gupta flirtation now well in the past, President Obama just announced he’s nominating Dr. Regina Benjamin as the U.S. Surgeon General. Benjamin, an Alabama family practitioner, runs a rural health clinic in Bayou La Batre, Ala., which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Her efforts to rebuild her clinic in the wake of Katrina gained her national recognition—Among other things, she borrowed against her house and maxed her credit cards to rebuild. She won a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” last year.

In announcing Benjamin, Obama took the opportunity to lobby Congress to move on health care reform. Speaking to reporters last week in Italy, Obama reiterated his call to get bills through both both the House and Senate by the August recess—though key Democrats suggested over the weekend that it’s unlikely to happen. “I think we’ll be through the Finance committee by the August recess, and I think that’s a realistic goal,” Sen. Kent Conrad said Sunday. “There really is plenty of time. Congress is going to be in session until Christmas Eve.” But the White House worries that the longer it takes, the more mired it will become in 2010 politics.

Speaking to reporters in the Rose Garden this morning, Obama hit back at critics who say it won’t happen. “I just want to put everybody on notice because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone: We are going to get this done. Inaction is not an option,” Obama said. “And for those naysayers and cynics who think that this is not going to happen, don’t bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen because the American people desperately need it.”

Obama at the Presidential Palace in Ghana

President Obama is back at the White House today, having wrapped up a week-long trip to Russia, Italy and Ghana. Your Gaggler was in the press pool on Saturday, which means there wasn't much opportunity to blog. But as you likely know by now, Obama spoke to Ghana’s parliament and took his family to visit the Cape Coast Castle, a former prison where slaves were held until they were put on boats to America. Everywhere he went, Obama was greeted by massive crowds, especially in Cape Coast where thousands of people lined the streets and literally hung off buildings to get a glimpse of POTUS. There were signs everywhere with Obama’s picture, and as you’ll see in the photos posted after the jump, people actually wore clothing made out of fabric featuring photos of the president and First Lady Michelle Obama. To say people were excited to see Obama is an understatement. At nearly every stop, crowds chased the motorcade—even waving at reporter, which, as one fellow pooler noted, doesn’t happen very often. But it got a little scary at one point. While Obama was still inside the castle, the crowds outside became unruly, pushing against barricades and threatening to stampede. The press pool watched as local police whipped people with sticks and batons. A few minutes later, Obama came out to wave to the crowd, but didn’t get too close—perhaps fearful of whipping up emotions too much. More photos after the jump.

So what did President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI talk about today at the Vatican? We’ve gotten debriefs of the meeting from both the Vatican and the White House. The two met one-on-one for about 25 minutes. Among the leading topics: stem cell research and abortion. According to both the Vatican and the White House, Obama told the pope that he’s committed to reducing the number of abortions within the United States—a key point that Obama has repeated on the campaign trail and now a president. Did anything the pope say change Obama’s mind. White House aides say no. “At the end of the day, it may just be that there's issues that they can't come to agreement on, but I think he believes…that you can disagree without being disagreeable, Obama adviser Denis McDonough told reporters on Air Force One.

According to the White House, the two also talked a lot about foreign policy, including Cuba, Honduras and the situation in the Middle East. According to the WH, the two talked at length about “interfaith dialogue” and their shared interest in reaching out to the Muslim world in hopes of countering extremism. Finally, they talked about ailing Sen. Ted Kennedy, who is suffering from brain cancer. Obama delivered a letter to the pope from Kennedy and asked the pontiff to pray for him. (Later, according to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Obama called Kennedy from Air Force One to let him know he’d given his letter to the pope.) By the way, the Obama girls were on site—as was Michelle’s mother, Marian Robinson—and they too met the pope, but by the time the cameras were allowed back into the room, they were gone.

By Aku Ammah-Tagoe
 
The neighbors across the street have been blasting their stereo nonstop. I’m staying with relatives in Accra, Ghana, where President Obama and his family landed earlier tonight. Ghanaians are excited to welcome the American president; everyone is decked out in shirts bearing his face, and even in the endless rain (this is Ghana’s rainy season), vendors walk the streets with racks of commemorative merchandise. But the people across the street are particularly thrilled. For hours, they’ve been playing a song with only one verse: “Barack. Barack. Barack Obama.” And here in Kokomlemle, one of the city’s central neighborhoods, no one seems to mind.

When we talk about the level of Obama’s celebrity, we usually talk about something quantifiable: the 200,000 people who watched him speak in Berlin one year ago, for example, or the almost 70 million votes he received last November. But here in Accra, Obamamania has transcended mere numbers. The president is more than a symbol or a celebrity. He’s become a part of the culture, and, in some ways, an adopted son. That makes sense: Obama is the embodiment of Africa’s promise, one of the brightest stars to emerge from a continent that is largely maligned or ignored. Many Ghanaians view their country the same way, which makes for a perfect match.

Photo courtesy Jason Reed / Reuters-Landov

You may have seen this rather misleading photo doing the rounds this morning. The photo appears to depict President Obama checking out the rear of 16-year-old Brazilian girl Mayora Taveres. We admit that the shot is incriminating, but the real story is far less titillating. If you watch the full video you'll see that Obama was in the midst of an entirely gentlemanly maneuver—he's about to offer his hand to the girl in the floral skirt and black top behind him to help her step done to his level. So, despite the unfortunate timing of this shot, Obama is innocent. Not only that, Obama is proving again that chivalry is not dead. (Rememer how he recently whisked his wife off to New York and Paris for dates?) French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the other hand—well, we'll leave it up to you to determine what he's looking at.

President Obama just wrapped up his visit with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. We’ll have to wait for word later from administration officials on what exactly the two talked about in their private sit-down. And no doubt the Vatican will have its own take. But reporters at the White House press file at the G-8 site in L’Aquila were able to see some of the visit on feed provided by official Vatican TV. Obama first met one-on-one with the pope, where the two exchanged the usual greetings as the president was escorted into Benedict's private apartment. The two leaders then went into the Papal Library, where Obama sat on one side of a very fancy wooden desk and Benedict sat on the other. As dozens of photographers captured the moment for eternity, Obama made small talk. “You must be used to having your picture taken,” the president said. The pope, with a faint smile, nodded. “I’m still getting used to it,” Obama told him. The pope gave him a careful look. “You must be getting tired,” Benedict finally said, referring to Obama’s lengthy foreign sojourn his week. Obama’s response was inaudible.

A few minutes later, Vatican TV suddenly cut to a feed that showed Obama and Benedict standing in a corner of the library, and First Lady Michelle Obama, dressed in a black dress and black lace head veil, had joined them. All three were smiling. There was no sign of the Obama daughters on Vatican TV’s footage, though reporters had been told they would be there. Your Gaggler did get to watch Obama introduce the pope to members of his inner circle, who looked collectively thrilled. Among those on hand: National Security Adviser Jim Jones, Deputy Chief of Staff Mona Sutphen, Senior Adviser David Axelrod, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and NSA adviser Denis McDonough. Upon meeting, Gibbs and McDonough kissed the pope’s hand—though other advisers, including Axelrod, who is Jewish, did not. Obama, Michelle and the aides posed for a group picture with the pontiff. For the record, McDonough, who confessed to reporters earlier this week that he was pretty excited about this event, looked the happiest we’ve ever seen him.

Afterwards, Benedict handed out official papal swag: boxes of blessed Catholic rosaries for the women and medals for the men. He presented the president with a painting of St. Peter's Square and an autographed copy of Caritas in Veritate, his recently-published take on the church's social teachings. (Do you think he meant that as a hint?) Obama, meanwhile, presented the pope with his gift: a stole that had been placed on the remains of St. John Neumann, the first naturalized U.S. citizen to named a saint. The group bid their good-byes, and it was done. The whole thing lasted a little less than an hour. The president is now on his way to Ghana, the final stop on his trip.

One of the real accomplishments here at the G-8 was the announcement that participating countries would contribute $20 billion toward global food security. Administration officials initially estimated they would only get $15 billion in commitments but Obama pushed the issue heavily. At a meeting this morning with the leaders of Nigeria, Libya, Ethiopia and several other African countries, Obama, talked about his own family’s experience with Africa and poverty. “Everyone knows his father is from Kenya, that he still has relatives living in poverty, and that while he’s president of the United States, he feels poverty in a very personal way because of this of his family situation,” a senior administration official told reporters. In part, Obama talked about Kenya’s decline from the days when his father lived there, and it was an economy doing better than South Korea, to now, where family members who remain there struggle. “His cousin in Kenya can’t find a job without paying a bribe,” the official said. The president’s audience was riveted. “You could hear a pin drop,” the aide said.

Obama was asked about the story at the presser today, and in his own words, he explained what he had told other foreign leaders.  “My father traveled to the United States a mere 50 years ago and yet now I have family members who live in villages,” Obama said. “They themselves are not going hungry, but live in villages where hunger is real.  And so this is something that I understand in very personal terms, and if you talk to people on the ground in Africa, certainly in Kenya, they will say that part of the issue here is the institutions aren't working for ordinary people.  And so governance is a vital concern that has to be addressed.”

Obama’s full answer, courtesy the White House is after the jump:

Going before reporters here in Italy, President Obama called his first G-8 summit “highly productive,” even as he conceded that summit leaders didn’t agree on every issue and not every problem was solved. Obama cited “meaningful” progress on issues like climate change and nuclear proliferation and disputed reports that the summit had failed to meet expectations by not issuing sanctions on Iran for the “appalling events” in the wake of last month’s disputed election there.

“This notion that we were trying to get sanctions or that this was a forum in which we could get sanctions is not accurate. What we wanted is exactly what we got—a statement of unity and strong condemnation,” Obama said, noting that the statement was even more important because Russia, a key trading partner of Iran, had signed onto the declaration. “My hope is, is that the Iranian leadership will look at the statement coming out of the G8 and recognize that world opinion is clear.”

The president said the leaders will re-evaluate Iran’s behavior at the upcoming G-20 summit in Pittsburgh in late September. Speaking of that, Obama acknowledged criticism of the summit process and said he had his own beefs with how things work. “There is no doubt we have to update and refresh and renew,” the president said, noting that many of these institutions are simply outdated. He noted that he had attended “a lot of these” during his six months in office and said he supported “streamlining them and making them more effective.” “We need to make sure that they’re as productive as possible,” Obama said.

...

Ouch. At day two of the G-8 summit this morning, President Obama met with Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who couldn’t resist getting a dig in about his country’s recent victory over the U.S. national soccer team. The two leaders were gathered for a photo op in front of reporters when Lula motioned to an aide, who subsequently brought over a Brazilian soccer jersey autographed by team members. “Hey, look at this,” Obama said, holding up the shirt. As reporters watched, Lula began excitedly talking about how stressed he was during the June 28th soccer match between the U.S. and Brazilian national teams in the Confederations Cup series. The U.S. led most of that game 2-0, only to lose 3-2 to the Brazilians. Through an interpreter, Lula told Obama that he had spent most of the game on the edge of his seat and that he had subsequently ripped off Obama’s campaign catchphrase to make it through. “Yes we can, Yes we can,” Silva repeatedly said, as Obama grinned. Lula has long been one of the world’s more colorful foreign leaders. In a press conference with George W. Bush in Brazil several years ago, Lula declared that he hoped Brazil and the U.S. could find their “G-Spot” in trade negotiations—a phrase the Bush White House later timidly quoted as “g-point” in their official transcript. (Your Gaggler STILL doesn't know what that means, FYI.) That’s not to say Obama didn’t get his own word in. As the two leaders wrapped up their bilateral talks today, Lula had already taken out his earpiece providing interpretation when Obama indicated he had one more thing to say. The Brazilian president replaced the earpiece. “We will not lose a 2-0 lead again,” Obama said and abruptly turned the microphone off and stood up. Lula burst out laughing.

You've got to hand it to Al Franken. It's pretty hard to become the most popular kid in school on the first day, but Minnesota's newest senator had no problem making friends on day one in his official capacity. Since arriving on Capitol Hill yesterday, Franken has been surrounded by reporters -- dozens of notepads and sound booms at every corner. He's been noticeably disciplined not to answer questions and has managed to keep impressively composed--tough for a former SNL cast member and career comedian. Senate camaraderie usually plays out most visibly, and with maximum showiness, on the senate floor. Minnesota's other senator Amy Klobuchar introduced Franken. "I always told Al his third year of campaigning would be his best," she quipped to huge laughs from the gallery. (Minnesota, we never knew this side of you!). Franken, on arrival, gave a few awkward-looking hellos before the cool kids -- Patrick Leahy, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer and a few others -- surrounded him for several large belly laughs.

It's customary when your colleagues show up to honor you to go around and shake hands, but oddly, he didn't shake many at all. "He's a hugger, we've established he's a hugger," joked a reporter sitting next to your Gaggler. Indeed, Franken's a fan of the two-arm embrace, going in for the body-to-body touch with virtually all of the 20 members who showed up for his swearing-in. Except when it came to Arlen Specter, the often thorny member of the senate who switched teams back in April, making friends on both side of the aisle eye him with some suspicion. Specter clearly had warm words for Franken (the press gallery is close, but not that close) but definitely didn't want to be hugged. The Pennsylvania senator kept his left hand firmly on Franken's shoulder, as if to hold him back. But that didn't matter. Franken finished the conversation, turned around, and kept spreading the love.

Did President Obama make a flub today when talking about when he met his wife, Michelle? Just before his speech to a university here in Moscow this afternoon, Obama mentioned his first meeting with the future First Lady in an offhand remark. “I don’t know if anybody else will meet their future wife or husband in class like I did, but I’m sure you’ll all going to have wonderful careers,” the president said. The thing is: Obama didn’t technically meet his wife at school. Although both are Harvard Law School grads, Michelle Obama got her degree in the spring of 1988 while her future husband didn’t actually start school there until later that fall. (He graduated in 1991). The Obamas officially met in Chicago in 1989, when the future president was a summer associate at the Sidley Austin law firm and Michelle was assigned as his mentor. Was what Obama said wrong? Technically no, considering Obama was still going to school when he met his wife. But for those keeping close watch on Obama trivia—ie, the White House press corps—the statement did seem a wee bit off.

Your Gaggler is in the press pool today, and I can now report first hand: the Russians really aren’t that excited about President Obama. Almost every trip, foreign and domestic, Obama has been the subject of curious, often cheering crowds. On domestic trips, some people even show up to boo. Not here. On the ride to and from Vladamir Putin’s house in Western Moscow, most Russians on the street this morning regarded Obama’s motorcade with total indifference. No cheering. No booing. It’s been a whole lot of, well, nothing. The motorcade route is usually sprinkled with dozens and dozens of people taking photos of Obama and his entourage as his limo passes. This morning, your Gaggler counted a grand total of four.

This may not be purely about Obama. As we blogged yesterday, the U.S. isn’t exactly popular with the Russians right now. That’s in part why Obama has dedicated a huge part of his day to working PR. He delivered what White House officials described as a major speech on U.S./Russian relations at a university here in Moscow. The message: the U.S. and Russia don’t need to be antagonistic to each other in order for both to succeed. "The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game—progress must be shared," Obama declared. “No one nation can meet the challenges of the 21st century on its own, nor dictate its terms to the world.” As the White House previewed last week, the speech was reassurances of how the U.S. respects Russia, its heritage and its sovereignty. The problem for Obama: Most Russian TV stations apparently didn’t carry the speech, which means the impact of his words will be more limited than the White House had hoped.

Putin: What's That On the Floor?

On Tuesday morning, President Obama drove about 25 minutes outside of central Moscow to have breakfast with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s former president turned prime minister. The meeting was highly anticipated to say the least. As your Gaggler noted yesterday, pretty much everybody seems to think Putin is still running the show here in Moscow, although Obama and the White House, when asked, won’t even go there. Here’s one telling sign: Obama visited Putin in the compound where he lived as president, Novo Ogaryovo. According to the locals, Putin liked it so much that when his term ended as president, he just decided to stay on, leaving current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to find alternate housing.
 
Today’s meeting was the first time Obama and Putin had ever met. Upon arrival, Putin met Obama outside for a quick handshake, before they headed upstairs to an ornate living room, where they briefly spoke to reporters. The initial meeting was cordial, but in your Gaggler’s view, it seemed a little awkward. Speaking through an interpreter, Putin talked first, welcoming Obama to his compound. He spoke of days when ties between the U.S. and Russia “flourished” but acknowledged periods of “grayish moods” between the two. “With you, we link all our hopes for furtherance of relations between our two countries,” Putin told Obama. It was incredibly upbeat language for Putin, but his body language was another story. Although Obama sat looking at him intently, Putin, from your Gaggler’s viewpoint, rarely made eye contact with POTUS. The Russian PM sat slumped in his chair, eyes to the ground virtually the whole time. So much for warm relations.

CQ Politics has a great tool that analyzes the voting patterns of members of Congress. Your Gaggler has just spent a few minutes perusing the records of senators--specifically the degree to which they support the president--and found some interesting results. CQ has tallied the votes from the 214 roll-call votes of this Congress, up through June 25. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two Republican senators offering greatest support for the president's agenda are Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both from Maine. Each supported the president in 92 percent of their votes. Ohio's George Voinovich came in third with 83 percent support, and fourth was New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg with 82 percent support. Yep, that's the same Judd Gregg who was offered the post of commerce secretary but the unexpectedly withdrew his name citing "irresolvable conflicts" with the Obama administration. Maybe they weren't so irresolvable after all.

On the other end of the spectrum, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn has cast his vote in line with the president's wishes just 32 percent of the time. Coburn is a staunch conservative who decries increases in government spending and has criticized Obama on a range of topics, including his cabinet nominees and his economic recovery plans. But he also counts himself as a friend of the president. He's even met personally with the Obama in the Oval Office. "We’re very good friends. We’re totally different, but we respect eachother immensely, and we have a personal relationship that’s outside ourpolitics," Coburn told The Oklahoman newspaper in March. (What's that old saying again? With friends like these ...) Jim Bunning from Kentucky and the senior Oklahoman Sen. James Inhofe aren't big fans of the president's agenda either, voting with him 35 percent and 43 percent respectively. And what of Obama's old campaign rivals? John McCain and Lindsey Graham are right in the middle of the pack. McCain has voted for Obama's plans 62 percent of the time and Graham 63 percent.

Across the aisle, Democrats appear quite disciplined (well, for Democrats anyway) with three quarters of them voting with the president 95 percent of the time or more. Sens. Carl Levin (Michigan), Patrick Leahy (Vermont), John Rockerfeller (West Virginia), Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse (both Rhode Island) all have a perfect record of support. (Ted Kennedy has thrown 100 percent of his votes behind the president, but he's only been present for 4 percent of the votes counted this year.) Russ Feingold from Wisconsin is the Democrat least supportive of the president, voting 86 percent of the time with hs agenda. For all his talk of being an independent centrist, Evan Bayh of Indiana has still voted with Obama 95 percent of the time. And Joe Lieberman, who prominently campaigned against Obama last year and is technically an independent, still cast 97 percent of his votes in favor of the president. 

...

The dirty little secret about presidential foreign trips: There is A LOT of hurry up and wait. In about two hours, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will hold a news conference. For now, reporters are holding in perhaps the most opulent press filing center your Gaggler has ever seen. We're inside the Kremlin Palace, in a huge room featuring massive gold chandeliers and lots of ornate woodwork, including handpainted wood floors. There are at least three gold-plated fireplaces. Not too shabby.

Rainy Red Square

Good morning from Russia! Your Gaggler is in a very rainy Moscow awaiting the arrival of President Obama who is scheduled to land here in a few hours. He’ll spend the next three days meeting with top Russian leaders, including President Dmitry Medvedev and former president turned Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Your Gaggler wrote an opus last week going over what this trip is all about. But we’ll sum it up again here in just one word: “reset.” Obama is hoping to turn the page on what has been chilly relations between the U.S. and Russia in hopes of finding new common goals. But that looks increasingly difficult, given the widening differences between the Washington and Moscow on issues like Iran and the U.S.’s plans for a missile defense shield. Administration officials had hoped to announce significant progress on a the renegotiation of a nuclear arms treaty that Obama and Medvedev announced at their first meeting last April in London. But last night, a senior White House official downplayed those expectations, admitting the negotiations had been "very complicated," in part by the Moscow's opposition to the missile shield. The Russians want the U.S. to drop it. Obama has so far refused. Gary Samore, Obama's point man on weapons of mass destructions, told reporters that that White House is hopeful the presidents will announce "some progress" on a new arms treaty, which would replace an agreement between the U.S. and Russia that expires this December.

Just as he has in Europe and other foreign stops, Obama hopes to bank on his enormous international popularity and bypass foreign leaders to appeal directly to the Russian people. But he won’t be able to do that as easily as he has in places like Germany and France. According to a new poll from the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes, only 23 percent of Russians polled have “confidence” in Obama, his lowest poll rating in the world. And, believe it or not, that’s one of the more positive numbers of the survey, which generally finds Russians sour on Americans.

Now that Sarah Palin has dropped her resignation bomb, the rest of the Web is spending a lovely Friday afternoon trying to figure out why. Matt Cooper has some theories, here. Friends Palin tell Politico's Mike Allen she plans to remain in the public eye, but hasn't decided anything about 2012. Is this a clue?

Balz talks to a lot of people, and no one has a firm theory about the resignation.

Halperin has 10 possible factors, most of which come down to money.

An Alaska blogger lists some possible reasons

Stromberg says this was a foolish move.

Alaska Democrats think she's crazy.

Bill Kristol thinks she's crazy like a fox.

And, of course, if you haven't read Purdum's Vanity Fair piece, it's definitely worth the hour of your life to read it.

Here's more from President Obama's interview this morning with the Associated Press’s Jennifer Loven:

On Russia, Obama was asked why he plans to meet with former Russian President Vladimir Putin in addition to talks with current leader Dmitry Medvedev. “(Putin) still has a lot of sway…and I think that it's important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated — that's it's time to move forward in a different direction,” Obama told the AP. “"I think Medvedev understands that. I think Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new, and to the extent that we can provide him and the Russian people a clear sense that the U.S. is not seeking an antagonistic relationship but wants cooperation on nuclear nonproliferation, fighting terrorism, energy issues, that we'll end up having a stronger partner overall in this process.”

Also on foreign policy, Obama said he was “not reconciled” with the idea of Iran having nuclear weapons. The president also expressed some reservations about his recently announced policy of putting some high risk Guantanamo Bay detainees in “indefinite detention” as the administration moves to close the prison next year. “It gives me huge pause,” Obama said, suggesting he may not follow through on the policy.

In perhaps his most interesting comments, Obama weighed in on the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action this week, in which it decided in favor of a group of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who sued the city for reverse discrimination. The ruling overturned a verdict laid down by an Appeals Court judge named Sonia Sotomayor. (Maybe you’ve heard of her.) SCOTUS, Obama said, was “moving the ball” on affirmative action, but he noted that the court had ruled out the use of racial preferences in hiring. Still, he spoke sympathetically toward the white firefighters, telling Loven, “I’ve always believed that affirmative action was less of an issue or should be less of an issue that it has made out to be in news reports.”

In addition to the Michael Jackson comments, Obama also weighed in on life at the White House. His biggest pet peeve: having to wear make-up all the time. "The shine police," he groused. On the plus side, he raved about the White House pastry chef, who “makes the best pie I’ve ever tasted."

Vice President Joe Biden just landed in Baghdad in a surprise two-day visit to Iraq. According to the White House, Biden is there to meet with U.S. military officials and troops and will sit down with Iraqi political leaders including President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The trip comes on the heels of Biden’s new Iraq duties. As Newsweek was first to report, President Obama has asked Biden to take the lead on Iraq policy with the goal of encouraging Iraqi political leaders to get their act together. Here’s part of my write-up from Newsweek's latest issue:

Biden's role will be something of an unofficial envoy to Iraq, though he won't handle day-to-day dealings with officials on the ground. The goal is to "raise the level" in hopes that Biden's stature encourages Iraqi officials to bridge their political differences, says a senior administration official who didn't want to be named talking about high-level personnel decisions. "He knows the players," White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel tells NEWSWEEK. "He brings a lot of experience and expertise on this issue to the table, and the president trusts him."

While they insist that overall incidents of violence in Iraq remain low, Obama and his aides worry about the recent spate of bombings in the region and the Iraqi security forces' ability to respond. But it's the continued political turmoil that has officials most anxious. Both Obama and Biden have raised the issue repeatedly with Iraqi leaders in recent months, without much success. "I think the Maliki government is not only going to have to continue to strengthen its security forces, but it's also going to have to engage in the kind of political give-and-take leading up to the national elections that we've been talking about for quite some time," Obama said on June 26. "I haven't seen as much political progress in Iraq … as I would like to see."

Call him what you will—ridiculous, heroic, a clown—but beginning next week, Al Franken will officially be known as Senator. Despite the disadvantage of getting a late start, having a fresh face will make him the newest object of attention on Capitol Hill. Other members will want to meet him and anxious staffers will ask for photos. But that's small peanuts. For lobbyists, there are few things more valuable than pushing a crisp business card into the palm of a new member with a blank slate.

Lobbying by nature is a competitive sport—there's only so much time and money to be divvied out. In Washington, the value is highest, where national legislation or federal contracts can translate into big money for interest groups that have an issue to push. Add to the equation Franken's untimely arrival in the midst of huge debates on climate change and health care and the price for Franken's ear will be high. So how does Washington's massive lobby machine break in the Senate's newest addition?

(More after the jump)

When President Obama met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for the first time last April, both men called for a new day in relations between the two countries. Obama said he wanted to push the “reset” button, while Medvedev called for an end to the “drift” in the U.S./Russian dynamic. They pledged to forge a more pragmatic relationship than their predecessors, George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, who bonded personally even as ties between Russia and the U.S. sank to new lows. Obama did not want to be “buddy buddy” with Medvedev, a senior administration official told reporters at the time. The White House, according to the official, wanted to forge something “more substantial,” a rapport of “candor and frankness” that would produce real results.

As Obama prepares for his first visit to Russia next week, the boundaries of that new relationship will face its first real test. Obama and Medvedev are expected to announce some progress toward the renegotiation of a crucial arms control treaty that aims to cut down on nuclear weapons stockpiles. But despite all the conciliatory talk these past few months, the two sides continue to face significant differences over several issues, including how to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions and a proposed U.S. missile shield in Europe. In recent weeks, the Russians have suggested that Obama will not reach his goal of reducing nuclear arms unless he drops the U.S.’s missile defense plans. But on Wednesday, the White House signaled in some surprisingly tough talk that it would offer no such concessions on that issue or another hot topic for the Russians: a U.S.-backed push to add former Soviet states Ukraine and Georgia to NATO, a move Moscow strongly opposes.
 
Asked in a briefing what “reassurances” Obama might give Medvedev on those two issues, Michael McFaul, the president’s top adviser on Russia, unloaded. “We’re definitely not going to use the word reassure in the way we talk about these things,” McFaul told reporters. “We’re not going to reassure or give or trade anything with the Russians regarding NATO expansion or missile defense… We don’t need the Russians.” They would be no concessions on those issues “in the name of reset.” McFaul insisted.

President Obama heads to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., today to hold a health care town hall. It’s the second time in a week that Obama has taken questions from the public on reform efforts. Last Wednesday, Obama participated in an ABC News forum on the topic at the White House. Today, Obama will take questions from a live audience, as well as those submitted via Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. It’s all a part of Obama’s efforts to use his own political popularity to get health care reform through Congress. This marks a bit of a strategy change for the White House. Initially, Obama tried to take a hands-off approach to the legislation, allowing Congress to take the lead. The plan seemed based on not repeating the mistakes of the Clinton White House which saw its reform efforts go down the tubes in 1993 when it took a heavy-handed approach to the bill, as opposed to letting lawmakers run the show. But Obama is far more popular than Bill Clinton was, and Democrats want the president to share some of their political burden on what will no doubt be a tricky debate. But is Obama doing enough?

Not unlike George W. Bush when he tried to use his own political capital to sell the equally tricky task of reforming Social Security four years ago, Obama is trying to have it both ways. He wants to bank on his enormous popularity to influence the public to pressure Congress to get something done this year, but he also wants to stay above the fray. Obama doesn’t want to get too specific about what he wants and doesn’t want in a bill because he knows what ultimately emerges from Congress will be a test of compromise.