Whoa!... Sarah Palin on Obama's SOTU Speech: “WTF Was Spot-On... There Were a Lot of WTF Moments In That Speech” (Video)  —  Sarah Palin on Barack Obama's State of the Union Speech.  —  “His theme of WTF was spot-on.”  —  Sarah Palin on Barack Obama's State of the Union Address:

DeMint open to 2012 presidential bid, advisers say  —  Washington (CNN) - News that South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint will travel to Iowa on March 26 to address a conservative forum organized by Rep. Steve King is sparking another round of chatter that DeMint might launch a dark horse bid for the White House in 2012.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.  —  ELIOT SPITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening and welcome to the show.  I'm Eliot Spitzer.  Kathleen Parker is on assignment tonight.  She's in Washington and in just a moment she'll be with us with breaking news …

O, Mark Salter!!  —  McCain wordsmith revealed as “anonymous” author of “O” the novel.  —  Confirmed by sources, but there were lots of in-plain-sight clues that led to Salter's Maine door.  —Simon and Schuster topper Jonathan Karp was Salter's editor on books he did with Senator McCain.

Uganda gay rights activist David Kato killed  —  David Kato led condemnation of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill  —  A Ugandan gay rights campaigner who last year sued a local newspaper which outed him as homosexual has been beaten to death, activists say.  —  Police have confirmed the death …

What Caused the Financial Crisis?  —  Congress's inquiry commission is offering a simplistic narrative that could lead to the wrong policy reforms.  —  Today, six members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission—created by the last Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis—are releasing their final report.

Dealing With Assange and the Secrets He Spilled  —  This past June, Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, phoned me and asked, mysteriously, whether I had any idea how to arrange a secure communication.  Not really, I confessed.  The Times doesn't have encrypted phone lines, or a Cone of Silence.

Obama Poised to Intensify U.S. Criticism of Egypt's Mubarak  —  Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) — The White House is prepared to step up its criticism of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key Middle East ally, if his government intensifies its crackdown on protesters, said an administration official.

HHS grants 500 new healthcare waivers  —  A week after Republicans announced plans to investigate waivers granted to organizations for healthcare reform provisions, President Obama's health department made public new waivers for more than more than 500 groups.

Airport bans toy soldier's three-inch rifle from plane... because it's a safety threat  —  Airport officials ordered a holidaymaker carrying a toy soldier onto a plane to remove its three-inch gun - because it was a safety threat.  —  Ken Lloyd was stunned when he was told he could not go on the plane …

SURPRISED BY THE DEGREE OF SURPRISE.... The day of President Obama's inauguration, the federal budget deficit left by the Republican administration was $1.3 trillion.  After some additional economy-saving measures were added to the mix, the 2009 deficit reached $1.4 trillion.

David Axelrod: “No grand repositioning”; Obama is a “progressive”  —  David Axelrod chatted with around a dozen bloggers at the White House late yesterday, and I got a chance to ask him to respond to all the claims — coming from left-leaning, right-leaning and nonpartisan observers alike …

G.O.P. Splits Over Plans to Cut Defense Budget  —  WASHINGTON — To hear the Republican leadership tell it, the once-sacred Pentagon budget, protected by the party for generations, is suddenly on the table.  But a closer look shows that even as Speaker John A. Boehner and Representative Eric Cantor …

To target Fox News over ‘Nazi’ label, rabbis make use of Murdoch's other media  —  A coalition of rabbis wants Fox News chief Roger Ailes and conservative host Glenn Beck to cut out all their talk about Nazis and the Holocaust, and it's making its views known in an unusual place.

Angle comes to Iowa, doesn't rule out presidential bid  —  Tea Party favorite Sharron Angle of Nevada descended upon the movie premiere of a conservative Christian movie in Johnston tonight, and she wouldn't say that she was running for president.  —  But she wouldn't say that she wasn't.

Celebrity Journalist: I Never Spoke to Hawaii Gov About Obama Birth Certificate  —  A celebrity journalist now claims he misspoke when he said last week that Hawaii's governor told him he was unable to find President Barack Obama's original birth certificate after a search of state and hospital archives.

Where's Mitt Romney?  —  The 2012 presidential campaign hasn't started in earnest, and that suits the perceived front-runner just fine.  —  MANCHESTER, N.H. — As presidential candidates jockey for position ahead of next year's nominating contests, Republicans in New Hampshire believe …

Better off bankrupt  —  States should have the option of bankruptcy protection to deal with their budget crises.  —  During the 2008 financial crisis, the federal government reacted in a frantic, ad hoc fashion, tapping taxpayers for bailouts galore, running roughshod over the rights …

GOP Image Net-Positive for First Time Since 2005  —  Democratic Party's favorable rating is improved from last year  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' opinions of the Republican Party have improved to the point where now more have a favorable than unfavorable opinion of the party.

Border authorities arrest controversial Muslim cleric east of San Diego  —  U.S. border authorities have arrested a controversial Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago and was caught earlier this month trying to sneak into California inside the trunk of a BMW, according to court documents.

Bill Aimed at Protecting S.C. From Foreign Law Introduced in Legislature  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. - A legislative initiative aimed at preventing “a court or other enforcement authority” from enforcing foreign law in the Palmetto State was introduced today in both the S.C. House and Senate by Rep. Wendy Nanney …

Governors put state jobs on the chopping block  —  New York (CNNMoney) - There will be lots more state workers joining the unemployment line this year.  —  Public employees are getting hit hard in the latest round of spending cuts as state officials look to close billion-dollar deficits.