Have a hankering to visit a hospital in Hawaii?

You could win a trip to tour the hospital where President Barack Obama was born. All you have to do is to submit the winning idea on how people can help Obama change the country for the better.

Progress Now, a liberal grass roots group, launched a new program to urge people across the country to help Obama pass healthcare reform and enact his other core campaign promises.

According to a press release, this campaign is the first part of the national launch of the ‘50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America’ — a book by ProgressNow founder Michael Huttner.

“The campaign and book are designed to inspire more people to help — at a time when progressive values are under attack in Washington and across the nation,” Huttner said.

ProgressNow and its state partners are seeking entries on how to help Obama change America. You can enter the contest by clicking here.

The grand prize will be a trip for two to Honolulu for a private tour of the hospital where Obama was born, followed by a chance to take part in a community service project there on Jan 18.

The contest comes as Obama struggles to win enough support in Congress to pass a plan to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system amid mounting public skepticism and unified Republican opposition.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Hugh Gentry (Obama supporter at campaign party after November election)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hit back at protesters vocally disrupting healthcare reform meetings around the country, calling them “un-American” - and with that word ignited the ire of opposition Republicans.

Pelosi and Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wrote in USA Today that there was an “ugly campaign” to misrepresent the healthcare overhaul legislation being written in Congress and stop public debate, which they said is “at the heart of our democracy.”

Opponents have shouted down lawmakers at town meetings held to explain the healthcare ideas, calling the proposed government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers “socialism” - a fighting word in American politics.  “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American,” the Democrats wrote.

The other side was quick to lob equally barbed words back. “Each public forum should give every participant the opportunity to express their views, but to label Americans who are expressing vocal opposition to the Democrats’ plan ‘un-American’ is outrageous and reprehensible,” said House Republican Leader John Boehner.

Congress is on break for the month of August, during which time Democrats were to try to sell healthcare reform ideas to the public.

In the first week of the summer recess, headlines have focused more on the raucous public meetings than on the healthcare legislation itself.

Has the Democratic strategy to win public support for healthcare reform backfired?

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Sarah Palin is expected to make a visit next week to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in California, in what would be her first public appearance outside Alaska since resigning as governor, and the sponsors said on Wednesday the event will be closed to the media.

Palin, the self-described hockey mom turned politician, is slated as “our expected guest” on Aug. 8 for a 50th anniversary gala hosted by the Simi Valley Republican Women, Federated, a nonprofit group of GOP volunteers, according to an e-mail from the group’s president Peggy Sadler. An accompanying notice states bluntly: “No press or other media allowed.”

The group is renting space for the invitation-only event at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, a suburb north of Los Angeles. Tickets for the gala reportedly were going for $100 per person for members and $150 for invited non-members. Up to 900 people were expected to attend. Sadler said the party is “not a fundraising event” and that proceeds would go to pay for the event itself.

“Expected guest” may be the operative phrase since Palin’s personal representatives say she “has not confirmed her attendance at any event” and that the Simi Valley party is “one of hundreds of outstanding invitations” she has received.

If she does appear in Simi Valley on Aug. 8, and nowhere else before then, it would mark Palin’s first venture to the Lower 48 since stepping down as Alaska governor on Sunday, 18 months before her term of office was scheduled to end.

The surprise resignation has sparked intense speculation about Palin’s future ambitions and whether she has hurt or helped any chance she might have of seeking higher office. Palin became a darling of Republican Party conservatives in 2008 when she catapulted to the national spotlight as John McCain’s running mate and the first female GOP nominee for vice president.

In a reminder of her often-testy relations with the media, she took a parting shot at the press during her farewell address in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Sunday, saying: “Democracy depends on you. That’s why our troops are willing to die for you. So how about in honor of the American soldier you quit making things up?”

Photo credit: Reuters/Nathaniel Wilder (Palin delivering farewell address in Fairbanks, Alaska, on July 27)

A looming battle between two prominent Texas Republicans is heating up after U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison confirmed that she’ll leave the Senate this fall to challenge Texas Gov. Rick Perry for his post in 2010.

Hutchison, Texas’ senior senator whose term ends in 2012, has not formally decided to run against Perry — the longest-serving governor in the state’s history — and will likely make that announcement in August, she told Dallas radio host Mark Davis in an interview on Wednesday.

Hutchison told Davis that she will likely resign her U.S. Senate seat “sometime in October, November … in that timeframe,” and return to Texas to focus on her gubernatorial campaign, with a primary run-off by May 2010.

“I’m coming home to try to give leadership to Texas,” said Hutchison, a television news reporter before she entered politics. “For him to try to stay on for 15 years is too long,” she said, referring to Perry.

A big question is the possibility that Texas could turn Democratic in coming years. In a recent article, The Economist said Texas — a long-time bastion of conservative Republicanism and home of former U.S. President George W. Bush — could swing Democratic in coming years due to a rising population of immigrants.

The last time a Democratic governor sat in the Austin statehouse was 1990, when Anne Richards won the governorship. She was replaced by Republican George W. Bush, who went on to become U.S. president.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Hutchison at hurricane briefing in Austin in 2008, across the table from Perry and then-president Bush)

The war of words that broke out in the U.S.  House of Representatives late Tuesday and spilled into Wednesday over one of the government’s annual spending bills shows the widening gulf between Democrats who control the chamber and minority Republicans.

Republicans accused Democrats of trying to shut down their efforts to save money on the $64.4 billion spending bill for the Commerce and Justice Departments and science agencies. They argued that in a time of mounting deficits it was unacceptable to spend 12 percent more for these programs than last year.  Democrats accused Republican of trying to stall the bill by offering 100 or so amendments.
 
Republican Representative Mike Pence said it was “an outrageous abuse of the legislative process” for Democrats to cut off debate after 30 minutes during the first amendment. He insisted that it was not about the process but about “runaway federal spending.”
 
Democrats shot back that Republicans were making it harder to finish the annual spending bills and also complete healthcare and climate change legislation quickly. Republican demands for a recorded vote on even amendments they supported — taking additional time — also angered Democrats.
 
“We have to pass 12 major appropriations bills in six weeks and still leave enough time on the calendar to deal with healthcare, to deal with climate change, to deal with the military authorization bill and several other crucial issues,” said Democratic Representative David Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
 
He said Republicans rebuffed Democratic attempts to reach a deal on handling amendments quickly. “We have tried every way we can to involve the minority,” he said. “We recognize a filibuster by amendment when we see it.”
 
When Pence was asked why seeking a recorded vote on an amendment that both sides supported wasn’t a stall tactic, he grinned and walked away from reporters.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts (Obey at a meeting earlier this year)

Sarah Palin showed up but,  did not share the stage with Newt Gingrich at the  Republican Senate and Congressional  Dinner in Washington Monday evening. Still, the Alaska governor and former Republican vice presidential candidate managed to have her say before a potentially huge audience.

 While Gingrich was headlining the dinner, Palin took the spotlight in a taped Fox News interview that aired as the former House speaker spoke. It’s early, but both of them may be looking ahead to 2012 — or  not.

In the twin speeches, Gingrich took on Obama and the Democrats on a range of  issues and Palin took aim at the president’s economic performance.

“Kind of a ‘we told you so,’” Palin said when interviewer Sean Hannity brought up a “spread the wealth” comment made by the Democrat during the 2008 presidential campaign.

“When you consider that the federal government is about 11 trillion dollars in debt, and we’re borrowing more to spend more … it defies any sensible economic policy that any of us ever learned through college. It defies economy practices and principles that tell you ‘you gotta quit digging that hole when you are in that financial hole,” Palin said. 

 Palin said she was disappointed and quite frustrated that, four months into the Obama presidency, she has not seen action to rein in spending or slow the growth of government.

“It’s expanding at such a large degree that if Americans aren’t paying attention, unfortunately our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize,” Palin said.

“Socialism?” Hannity asked.

“Well, that is where we are headed,” Palin said. “That is where we have to be blunt enough and candid enough and honest enough with Americans to let them know if we keep going down these roads… nationalizing many of our services, our projects our businesses, yes that is where we would head.”

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Photo credit: Hans Deryk (Palin at 2008 Republican Governors Assoc. Conference)

WASHINGTON - Newt Gingrich, move over.

Sarah Palin is coming to town.

The latest word is that Palin is going to attend Monday night’s Republican fund-raising dinner for congressional candidates.

But she won’t be addressing the group gathered at the Washington Convention Center.

The Alaska governor, and possible 2012 presidential candidate, had gone back and forth on whether to attend the dinner, first say she would, then saying she wouldn’t and now saying she will.

The dinner is expected to raise an impressive $14 million or more for House and Senate Republican candidates in the 2010 mid-term elections.

There’s a backstory to Palin’s decision to attend. Here’s what we’re hearing:

Gingrich is the keynote speaker. Some Palin associates last week contacted the dinner organizers to ask whether they were still interested in having her attend.

The idea was to make her a surprise guest and let her say a few things.  But then there were worries from others in the party that this could upstage Gingrich, another potential 2012 candidate, and why do this when Newt has been helping raise money?

So the dinner organizers went back to Palin’s people and said they would be happy to have her sit at Senator John Cornyn’s main table, but that have no speaking role.  That led Palin’s camp to say she would not be coming, but then — alert the photo desk — she will be in town.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked her ahead of the dinner whether she missed being in the “spotlight” since the end of the campaign in which she was the vice presidential running mate to top dog John McCain.
“I love my time in Alaska. At the same time though I crave, if not my voice, other voices out there being bold, being strong letting Americans know that those that are concerned about the growth of government and about national security issues, they’re not alone.”

REUTERS/TAMI CHAPPELL   Sarah Palin waves to crowd at December rally

REUTERS/ROBERT GALBRAITH  Newt Gingrich attends 2008 Republican National Convention

Republican Party chairman Michael Steele yesterday urged his fellow GOPers to stop “navel gazing” and go on the offensive against President Obama and his Democrats, and it appears they are getting right to it.

Today, the party votes on a resolution to ask the Democratic Party to rename itself “The Democrat Socialist Party.”

And Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker, said current House speaker Nancy Pelosi should step down for accusing the CIA of lying to Congress about torture.

“Even Democrats have to be concerned that she is clearly not telling the truth,” Gingrich said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

So far, no Democrats have called on Pelosi to resign over the flap.

Elsewhere in Washington, the White House panel trying to find a way out of the economic crisis holds its first public meeting today. The 16-member Economic Recovery Advisory Board, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, meets at 10 a.m.

Lots of administration officials on the Hill today.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testify at House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee at 12:30.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee at 9:30.

FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies before the House Judiciary Committee at 10:00.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifies on TARP at Senate Banking Committee at 9:30.

And finally, Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announce an effort to crack down on Medicare fraud at 1 p.m.

photo credit: ABC News (Steele appears on an ABC News show, Feb.

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Following the election of Barack Obama as president last year, many Americans figured Democrats and Republicans in Congress would start working together more to solve the nation’s problems.
 
Yet less than three months into Obama’s presidency, they have concluded that lawmakers are actually bickering more than usual.
          
That’s the findings of a new poll released on Wednesday by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
    
The survey, conducted March 31 to April 6 of 1,506 adults, also found that the public has more confidence in Obama’s handling of the economy than they do in either Democratic or Republican congressional leaders.
    
Seventy percent of respondents said they have a “great deal/fair amount” of confidence that Obama will do the “right thing” on the economy.
    
By contrast, 55 percent said they have such confidence in Democratic congressional leaders and just 38 percent said they have that level of confidence in Republicans leaders.
    
Republicans opposed Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan and his $3.5 trillion budget plan, both of which won passage thanks to the president’s fellow Democrats who control Congress.
 
In January, shortly before Obama took office, 50 percent of respondents in a Pew poll said they expected Democrats and Republicans to work together more while just 39 percent said they expected them to bicker more.
    
But the new poll found just 25 percent said they believe lawmakers are working together more. Fifty-three percent said Democrats and Republicans seem to be bickering and opposing each other more than usual.

Photo credit: Reuters/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Pool (Obama addresses joint session of Congress on February 24, 2009)

Republican U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, 79, of Pennsylvania appears to face a tough run next year for reelection to a sixth term.
    
And he can blame his problems largely on his decision last month to break ranks with fellow Republicans and vote for President Barack Obama’s $787 economic stimulus package.
    
Those are the findings of a Quinnipiac University poll of about 1,000 Pennsylvania voters released on Wednesday.
 
The Connecticut-based university found that Specter, viewed as a moderate, trails former conservative congressman Pat Toomey, his likely Republican primary challenger, by a margin of 41 percent to 27 percent. Specter narrowly defeated Toomey in a 2004 primary battle.
 
Another and somewhat smaller poll by Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania was a mixed bag for Specter.
 
While the survey showed Specter leading Toomey 33 percent to 18 percent, it found that 49 percent of respondents were undecided or favored others.
    
That survey of 662 people also found that less than half — 40 percent — believe Specter deserves another term, with 46 percent saying it is “time for a change.”
    
The Quinnipiac survey showed Democrats and independents backed Specter’s support of Obama’s stimulus package. But Republicans opposed it — 70 percent to 25 percent.
 
Both surveys were conducted in recent days and had a margin of error between plus or minus of three to four percentage points.
 
“Pennsylvania Republicans are so unhappy with Sen. Specter’s vote for President Barack Obama’s stimulus package and so-called pork barrel spending that they are voting for a former congressman they hardly know,” said Clay Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
 
Richards added, however, if Specter survives the primary, he would have a lot going for him in the general election since there currently seems to be no strong Democratic contender.
 
But Specter faces other problems.
 
He stepped into a political hornet’s nest on Tuesday when he opposed a bill to make it easier for workers to unionize, a top legislative goal of organized labor but anathema to many in the business community and his own party.
 
So if Specter wins the Republican primary, he can expect to be opposed by energized union supporters in the general election. 
 
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