A.B. Stoddard

Sarah Palin gave a great speech Saturday night in Nashville at the Tea Party convention. She is preparing to engage on a national level in a significant way, on Fox News, campaigning in primaries and possibly general-election campaigns this fall and staying on the speaking tour. According to Sunday's New York Times, Palin has created a circle of advisers who probably wrote that speech and keep her informed on the issues of the day. She is admittedly prepping herself for a new role: someone prepared to talk about policy, not just about herself.

The Obama administration, coming under fire for administering Miranda rights to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab just 50 minutes after questioning him about his attempted bombing on Christmas Day aboard a Northwest Airlines flight, has begun to rethink several key national security questions. This week we learned from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) that the White House is revisiting a plan to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a prison in Thomson, Ill. And we know from key Democrats, though the Department of Justice continues to deny it, that the trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed won't be taking place in New York City after all.

All we can focus on here in Washington today is how irritated we are by the coming 20 inches of snow and how weepy we feel over the departure of Tai Shan, our beloved panda who departs the Smithsonian National Zoo today to go back to China. OK, maybe misty is more like it.

But in Nashville, the Tea Partiers are gathering today for quite a party — their first convention. Sarah Palin, as you probably already know, is speaking. And the organizers have all been fighting with each other, since, as you probably already know, there isn't one Tea Party.

A.B. Stoddard answers viewer questions about which party will benefit most from a show of bipartisanship, and looks at some of the president's budget plan.

President Barack Obama wants us to know he doesn't quit, but his plea for healthcare reform last night wasn't so urgent. He made the case for it, to be sure, but he talked about waiting for temperatures to cool. Let's be clear, as Obama likes to say: The Democrats are out of time. Any pause for the cooling of temperatures means fewer votes for a bill.

A.B. Stoddard talks with Pundits Blog contributors Chris Kofinis and John Feehery about what President Barack Obama needs to say in his State of the Union address and how Democrats can keep their majority in Congress.

President Barack Obama and his White House team have kicked into campaign mode, bringing in their version of Dick Morris to right the ship. David Plouffe, manager of Obama's revolutionary and well-respected presidential campaign, will now head to Democratic National Committee headquarters to make sure a trusted eye is overseeing the 2010 midterm elections.

Most Democrats expect a day of reckoning this November, with a likely loss of more than 20 seats and a feared loss of 40, which would flip control to the GOP. Plouffe isn't promising anything, but he made the case that "November Doesn't Have to Be A Nightmare" in an op-ed he penned for The Washington Post over the weekend.

As President Obama and his advisers begin to digest the shock of Tuesday's defeat in Massachusetts, and devise a way forward, it is clear they have accepted only so much culpability at this point and have yet to shake their denial.
 
Yesterday Robert Gibbs held his press briefing and made several television appearances, top adviser David Axelrod also made the rounds, and the president himself gave an interview to ABC News. All three acknowledged the anger Americans are feeling, and which helped Scott Brown (R) win the seat held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) in Massachusetts, just as it helped Republicans beat Democrats in gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia in November.

The Hill's A.B. Stoddard takes viewer questions and comments about the Massachusetts special election to fill the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's (D) seat, and what the potential Republican win will do for healthcare reform in Congress.

I know you have heard by now the Democrats are having trouble holding the seat held by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy for more than four decades in deep-blue Massachusetts. I know you have heard they may not be able to pass healthcare reform after nearly a year of agonizing negotiations, political horse-trading and partisan warfare. I know you have heard how the House-passed cap-and-trade bill won't make it out of the Senate, how vulnerable Democrats are retiring and how sinking polls numbers for President Barack Obama and his party could lead to even more departures and make losing the House a strong possibility.