Palin: Without Makeup, I'm Not So Hot

Says Dems need to 'do better' at selling health care reform

(NEWSER) - Why is Tom Daschle taking money to advise an insurer that’s against the creation of a public health care option—a measure he supports? Pish-posh, the former Senate majority leader tells Deborah Solomon in the New York Times. Who would doubters on the left “advise these insurance companies talk to? They can talk to Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin or they can talk to me,” he tells the New York Times Magazine in its weekly Q&A. More»

Slams critics in first interview since resignation

(NEWSER) - Giving a round of TV interviews in her fishing gear, before heading out on a salmon-fishing excursion, soon-to-be-former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin slammed President Obama, her own party, and critical bloggers this morning—but wouldn’t say whether she plans to run for president. “Don’t know what the future holds. I’m not gonna shut any door,” she told ABC News. Could her resignation end her career? “Politically speaking, if I die, I die. So be it,” she said. More»

Weird doings with Hillary, Huck and a chucked shoe

(NEWSER) - Oh-eight was a banner year for politics, and half the time it was a really strange banner. Politico looks back on the weirdest moments in a topsy-turvy year.

• Mike Huckabee holds a news conference to announce he won’t run a negative ad, then plays the ad for everyone.
• Desperate for blue collar cred, Hillary Clinton awkwardly downs a whiskey shot in an Indiana bar.
• San Francisco tries to rename a sewage plant after George W. Bush.

Governor wishes she'd spoken to reporters more

(NEWSER) - Sarah Palin wishes she’d interacted with the media more while campaigning with John McCain, the Alaska governor told Human Events. Palin identified her “biggest mistake” in the ’08 campaign as not taking a more active role in communicating with voters through the media. “I was not allowed to do very many interviews, and the interviews that I did were not necessarily those I would have chosen,” Palin said. More»

(NEWSER) - Katie Couric didn't want to diss Sarah Palin when grilled by a New York Post reporter, but she did let slip that the Alaska governor "should keep her head down and learn about governing." Couric, whose interview with Palin during the presidential campaign opened up the candidate to a deluge of criticism, added—too late—that she "didn't want to judge." More»