Presidential races

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) on Monday night questioned whether Pakistani leaders provided assistance to Osama bin Laden while he was in hiding. 

The potential GOP presidential candidate called on the U.S. government to explore the possibility that Pakistan aided the former al Qaeda leader and raised questions about other aspects in the aftermath of the U.S. military operation that took down bin Laden. 

"How was the most wanted man in the world" able to hide out "in plain sight?" Palin asked during a veterans charity fundraiser at Colorado Christian University. "Could it be that some of the Pakistani leaders were helping him?"

Palin, a frequent critic of President Obama's foreign policy, raised doubts about the amount of the U.S. aid to Pakistan, saying: "We deserve answers to our questions. We should demand answers to our questions."

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee joined a chorus of lawmakers in Washington who called for greater scrutiny of the Pakistani government after the U.S. killed bin Laden while he hid out in a town close to the capital city of Islamabad.

The White House appears to hold similar fears; President Obama's counterterrorism czar, John Brennan, said Monday that it is "inconceivable" that Pakistan was not providing a "support network" for bin Laden. 

Palin offered both praise and criticism for Obama during her speech: She commended Obama, former President George W. Bush and the military for hunting down bin Laden.

But she did not mention Obama by name during her speech, instead referring to him as "the president." She thanked Bush by name "for having made the right call," a comment that garnered a hearty round of applause from the audience.

She also referenced the swirling debate over "questions about the burial, about the photos," of bin Laden. But she expressed confidence that "these [details] will be disclosed, we must trust."

The Tea Party favorite has not yet decided whether she will run for president, but some parts of her address sounded like a campaign stump speech. 

She contrasted the bin Laden mission's "decisive leadership" with the U.S.'s "ill-defined" military intervention in Libya and also laid out five pillars for military action, including a belief that "American soldiers must never be put under foreign command." She also said that U.S. forces should only be deployed when the country had a direct national interest in the outcome.

She also made a broader point about the direction of the country to conclude her speech.

"No, America is not in decline," Palin said. There is "not a need for a fundamental transformation of America. It's for a renewal of all that is good about America."

There's no question President Obama will garner a higher approval rating in polls following the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan. But it's unclear how long that new appreciation will last.

GOP pollster Glen Bolger assembled the graphic below that puts Obama's job approval bump into historical perspective.

Bolger wrote in an email: "I'm certainly not about to predict the length or size of the bump that Obama receives. But, it is unlikely to run through next year unless the economy improves dramatically as well."

Osama bin Laden's killing should not scare off some of President Obama's potential GOP challengers from entering the race, former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele said Monday.

Steele predicted that Obama would receive a bump in the polls, but said that history shows that the former al Qaeda chief's slaying does not guarantee Obama victory in 2012.

"I think they would be making a mistake" if a potential Republican presidential candidate decided not to enter the race, Steele said on ABC's "Top Line" webcast. "I think the '92 presidential proved that."

Steele, of course, was referencing Bill Clinton's defeat of George H.W. Bush nearly two decades ago, after the latter received a bump in the polls following the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

"I expect that the president's numbers will strengthen," Steele said. "I think that should not be a foreboding sign for anybody."

A significant number of potential candidates have not yet taken an official step toward running for president, such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman and billionaire businessman Donald Trump.

Some pundits have speculated that the slaying could significantly bolster Obama's chances of being reelected in 2012.

But Steele said that the economy and jobs will still dominate the political landscape, despite the bin Laden slaying. The former chairman said that those are issues where the GOP could still get after the president.

Steele, who was a frequent critic of Obama during his rocky tenure at the RNC, praised him and said that it would be wise for Republican presidential candidates to not go after the president over the bin Laden operation in particular.

"On this particular point, there is no politics here. It really does stop at the water's edge ... like it did after 9/11," he said. "Presidential candidates and the GOP are going to have to take that very seriously and approach it from that standpoint."

Former Alaska governor said it turns her stomach to hear people say the debt ceiling must be increased.

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Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) says his bill, to be introduced soon, is not directed at President Obama.

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Tim Pawlenty the only candidate to confirm he'll attend the South Carolina debate; Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are expected.

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A Medicare reform idea that could be included in likely GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty's forthcoming budget proposal has run into opposition from a key House Republican. 

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday dismissed Pawlenty's recent suggestion that Medicare costs could be cut by implementing "payment reforms" that would direct money to doctors and hospitals for better healthcare outcomes.

The congressman said that the idea hews too closely to the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) proposed in President Obama's healthcare law, which both Pawlenty and Ryan oppose. IPAB is tasked with lowering Medicare costs without affecting the quality of coverage.

"Medicare has yet to do this successfully," Ryan said during an interview with the conservative Weekly Standard. "The president wants his IPAB to do essentially the same thing."

Ryan's comments represent yet another split between the former Minnesota governor and House Republicans as both gear up for an election year in 2012. 

House GOP leaders were annoyed with Pawlenty for opposing the spending compromise they brokered with President Obama and Senate Democrats.

Ryan, who some believe could mount a dark-horse run for president, is not afraid to go after potential GOP presidential candidates: He took a shot at the healthcare plan Mitt Romney implemented as governor of Massachusetts. 

Ryan has said he is not interested in running for president in 2012.

Pawlenty initially praised Ryan's 2012 budget proposal after he released it in early April, but said last week that he would release his own budget that will depart from Ryan's plans to reform Social Security and Medicare. 

Ryan's budget would transform Medicare benefits into so-called "premium support" for future seniors that would subsidize private healthcare coverage. Democrats have attacked the plan as a voucher system that would lead to the privatization of the popular, yet fiscally troubled program.

The Wisconsin Republican said that Pawlenty's idea, which is based off reforms he implemented in Minnesota, would rely too heavily on centralized bureaucracy to be effective.

"It’s very difficult for a centralized bureaucracy to do that ... When they get these targets, like the president is giving them, you know a half a trillion dollars, they just sort of do indiscriminate cutting across the board, lowering reimbursement to providers, causing providers to drop out of the program altogether," he said.

Pawlenty's presidential exploratory committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“I want to see the original long-form certificate of Donald Trump’s Republican registration,” the freshman GOP senator said.

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Forty percent of registered voters would vote for Obama, while 41 percent would choose a generic Republican challenger.

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Consumer advocate Ralph Nader says despite anger within the liberal base of the Democratic Party, President Obama will win reelection easily next year.

In an op-ed the four-time presidential candidate penned for Bloomberg on Wednesday, Nader slammed Obama's approach to economic and foreign policy, but argued that the weakness of the GOP field makes him a shoe-in for a second term.

The GOP field consists largely of candidates leading with "harsh ideological positions," Nader wrote, dismissing Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and real estate mogul Donald Trump as lightweights who "might as well be on the Democratic National Committee payroll."

Obama's greatest 2012 asset, argued Nader, may be that he's "neutered much of the big corporate lobby’s zeal to defeat him."

As for a potential primary Democratic challenge, Nader said while he would welcome it, he lamented the fact that no one appears willing to take up that mantle.  

"A discussion of Obama’s forgotten campaign promises and record would have public support among Democrats," Nader wrote. "Even so, the liberal base has nowhere to go to send a message about war, free-trade agreements, raising the minimum wage or union membership."