How Conservatives Are Blowing Their Chance  —  President Obama is on his way to Portsmouth, New Hampshire at this hour for a town hall meeting on health care.  At this same hour last week, several of the President's top political advisers were meeting in a White House conference room to discuss …

It Is Democracy, Not Health-Care Reform, That Is Sick  —  As Josh Marshall says, we've reached a point in the health-care reform discussion where logic has fallen apart.  Consider, for instance, Danielle Allen's op-ed this morning.  Discussing the insistence of some that health-care reform …

Documents Detail Campaign to Oust U.S. Attorney  —  The dismissal of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias in December 2006 followed extensive communication among lawyers and political aides in the White House who hashed over complaints about his work on public corruption cases against Democrats …

Does Linda Douglass know about this? part 2  —  Barack Obama's denial that he has advocated a “single payer,” Canadian style health care system may not have been the most comic moment of his Portsmouth dog-and-pony show.  He also disputed the notion that adding a government plan to “compete” …

Matthews to Obama protester: Why'd you bring a loaded gun to a town hall with the president?  —  Good question, especially given the sign this guy was carrying.  Considering the lengths to which the Secret Service normally goes to investigate threats against the president …

FREEDOMWORKS ISSUES ABJECT APOLOGY TO LEFT  —  Free-market organization thanks left-wing groups for instruction on the finer points of intelligent policy debate  —  Washington, DC — Today, FreedomWorks released an apology to leftist political organizations, including MoveOn.org …

Support for Congressional Health Care Reform Falls to New Low  —  Public support for the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats has fallen to a new low as just 42% of U.S. voters now favor the plan.  That's down five points from two weeks ago and down eight points from six weeks ago.

What Really Happens When You Demand the President Produce His Birth Certificate?  —  You get a bunch of outrageous people — very nice people, mind you, but frustrated enough to believe anything about Obama — storming the offices of the attorney general, the secretary of state, and the FBI.

Poll: Reid would lose if Lowden were to run  —  Republican Sue Lowden would defeat incumbent Democratic Sen. Harry Reid by 6 percentage points in a head-to-head matchup, according to a poll of likely Nevada voters.  —  Unfortunately for Reid-bashers, Lowden isn't running — at least not yet.

“Send Them Home With a Bullet in the Head”  —  I've gone on the record disagreeing with the term ‘Teabaggers’ and with the use of the word ‘un-American’ - I've done so because despite the astroturfing and the faux-grassroots opposition to health care reform, I place a premium on citizen activism …

No More Talk Radio Hosts on CNN?  —  Exclusive: TVNewser has learned, and a CNN spokesperson confirms, that in his morning editorial meeting today, CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein asked his show producers to avoid booking talk radio hosts.  “Complex issues require world class reporting,” …

A runaway deficit may soon test Obama's luck  —  Felix the Cat, the wonderful, wonderful cat!  Whenever he gets in a fix, he reaches into his bag of tricks!  —  President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat.  One of the best-loved cartoon characters of the 1920s, Felix was not only black.

White House Decries Physicians Committee's Poster, Which Mentions Obama Girls  —  The posters went up last week, 14 in Union Station.  On each of the large displays, a thought bubble rises up from a picture of a beautiful 8-year-old: “President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches.

How Democrats And Republicans Exploit Emotion  —  The field of cognitive neuroscience has all but given up trying to distinguish between emotion and reason, but political debate evidently lags far behind the science.  Some observers of health care politics, particularly on the left …

Are liberals seceding from sanity?  —  The left is crazy to insult white Southerners as a group  —  Back in the 1960s, Seymour Martin Lipset and Richard Hofstadter and other liberal sociologists, historians and political scientists, puzzled that anyone could support Barry Goldwater rather …

The Final Days of Merrill Lynch  —  IT'S BEEN ALMOST a year since Bank of America agreed to buy Merrill Lynch, on September 15, for $50 billion in stock, in what now looks like one of the most fraught deals in the history of American business.  The deal was announced on the same …

Sanford defends expensive travel, denies divorce  —  (CNN) - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford defended his trips on expensive international flights on Tuesday and said that a state Senate probe into his foreign travel is driven by a politically-motivated “feeding frenzy.”

Armed and Dangerous?  —  MSNBC just aired footage of the crowd gathering at the Obama town hall meeting on health care that's supposed to start later today in New Hampshire and pointed out one man in a group holding protest signs with a gun in a holster on his hip.  Apparently not a law officer, but a civilian.

My Message for Michelle Malkin  —  Blogs and Stories  —  The Daily Beast's Meghan McCain on why the far-right pundit, who says McCain needs to shut up, won't be getting her wish—and why telling moderates to get out of the party is bad for the GOP.  —  Michelle Malkin, the conservative pundit …

Georgia Congressman Who Hosted Rowdy Town Hall Finds Office Vandalized  —  A Georgia congressman who faced down a rowdy town hall meeting last week found his office vandalized with a swastika painted over the official congressional sign.  —  FOXNews.com  —  A Georgia congressman who faced …

Lobbyist-Run Group Americans for Prosperity Provides Talkings Points To ‘Birther’ At Rep. Perriello Town Hall  —  EDITOR'S NOTE: Over the coming month, ThinkProgress will be traveling to town hall events across the country to report on what we're seeing on the ground.  This is our second eyewitness report.

Obama Kabuki theater in Portsmouth; crowd chants “YES, WE CAN!;” little girl laments “mean things” on protest signs; O lies about single-payer support  —  The Obama town hall in Portsmouth is underway.  The president wrapped up his remarks to the cheers of “YES WE CAN!” from the fair and balanced audience.