Poll: Most Americans Back Obama on Stimulus, Mortgage Plans  —  Bipartisan Support Drops Significantly as More Republicans Disapprove of How President Is Handling Job  —  As President Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress tomorrow night, he receives strong grades …

Santelli Claims The White House Is Threatening Him: ‘My Kids Are Nervous To Go To School’  —  CNBC's Rick Santelli appeared on at least two radio programs today to promote his “rant” against President Obama's housing program.  On G. Gordon Liddy's radio program, Santelli called attention …

Survey Reveals Broad Support for President  —  President Obama is benefiting from remarkably high levels of optimism and confidence among Americans about his leadership, providing him with substantial political clout as he confronts the nation's economic challenges and opposition from nearly …

Well Before the 2012 Season, Obama Kicks the GOP a Political Football  —  One month into the Obama presidency, the race for the 2012 GOP nomination appears very much underway.  —  Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, before heading to the National Governors Association annual meeting that started …

Say what?  —  I've been following the Franken-Coleman legal proceedings pretty closely and everything I've read suggests that Franken is getting the better end of it and will be certified in the next few months.  So where the hell does this come from? … Update: Murray did take this question from me, I'll give her that at least.

Meltdown on MSNBC: The Leg Tingle Is Gone?  —  I can hardly believe what I'm watching on MSNBC right now.  Chris Matthew is almost critical - no, not even almost, he's flat out critical of President Obama on the economic front.  He mentions an earlier conversation with CNBC's manic stock analyst Jim Cramer …

No rest for Rahm at the movies  —  A surprised fellow moviegoer passes on word that Rahm Emanuel took time out Saturday night to see The Wrestler at the E Street Cinema last night with a Secret Service Agent.  —  It was not a quiet night out.  —  “The guy sitting next to Rahm …

Official: Obama likely to name Locke to Commerce  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior administration official says that President Barack Obama's likely third pick for Commerce secretary is former Washington Gov. Gary Locke.  —  The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement has not yet been made.

HSR LIE JUST WON'T GO AWAY.... Once a claim makes its way onto the approved list of Official Republican Talking Points, it's there to stay.  Even after a claim has been exposed as completely false — sometimes, especially after it's been proven false — GOP figures will just keep repeating it.

The 10 most influential D.C. Twitterers  —  When you talk about Twitter, you might as well be talking about the Snuggie: People around you swear that it's actually useful, but you can't help thinking it silly and declaring, “I just don't get what all the buzz is about.”

Stocks Slump on Corporate Woes; Indexes Fall by 3.4%  —  Investors called it another day of water-torture declines on Wall Street: drop, drop, drop.  —  A broad sell-off sent Wall Street staggering lower in the last hour of trading on Monday as the banking system continued to worry investors.

“Dear President Obama”: The President Reads 10 Letters a Day from the Public, With Policy Ramifications  —  The letter to President Obama came from a woman in Arizona whose husband lost his job.  He was able to find work, but the new gig came with one-third the pay; the family is struggling to make their mortgage payments.

AIG Seeks More US Funds As Firm Faces Record Loss  —  American Insurance Group, the insurance giant that is 80-percent owned by the US government, is in discussions with the government to secure additional funds so it can keep operating after next Monday, when it will report the largest loss in U.S. corporate history, CNBC has learned.

Three envoys, three titles  —  The State Department, finally, announced the appointment of Dennis Ross, with the title “Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for The Gulf and Southwest Asia.”  —  Ross's portfolio seems , technically at least, keep him from stepping on George Mitchell's toes …

The Myth Of The Filibuster: Dems Can't Make Republicans Talk All Night  —  Hoping for a C-SPAN spectacle of GOP obstruction, some impatient Democrats are urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to call Republicans on their filibuster bluff.  —  House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer …

Hey, lady, your $800,000 house is NOT my problem  —  Repeat after me: Property value-preservation is not a civil right.  —  Craig Meister at the Examiner.com points me to this typical CNN sob story clip of a bus driver named Minta Garcia who is demanding that President Obama halt all foreclosures.

A Strong Start for Obama - But Hardly a Bipartisan One  —  Sixty-Eight Percent Approve of Obama's Performance  —  Barack Obama's month-old presidency is off to a strong start, marked by the largest lead over the opposition party in trust to handle the economy for a president in polls dating back nearly 20 years.

Obama talks helos with McCain  —  President Barack Obama opened Monday's economic summit by taking aim at the “casual dishonesty” of Bush administration budgets Monday, saying he'll abandon accounting “tricks” used to hide the ballooning deficit and pledging to cut a $1.3 trillion federal shortfall in half during his first term.

‘U.S. plans to pledge $900 million for Gaza’  —  Preliminary estimates put the damage in Hamas-run Gaza after Israel's offensive at nearly $2 billion.  —  Clinton's bid to get the $900 million could face an uphill battle in Congress where requests for Gaza will likely meet resistance …

CBS News' New Right-Wing PR Chief: “I Never Said Democrats Are Evil”  —  CBS News kicked up a big controversy over the weekend when the news broke that the network had hired as its new public relations chief one Jeff Ballabon, a conservative Orthodox Jew who helped Bush's reelection campaign in 2004.