**President Obama
*Gallup: "Americans who approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing largely cite his leadership in attempting to solve the nation's problems as the reason for conferring their approval. This accounts for 54% of his supporters. By contrast, nearly two-thirds of those who disapprove of Obama's job performance mention policy areas where they disagree with the president."

*In Michigan yesterday, Obama signaled not to "count on auto industry jobs that have been lost in the state" coming back. The Free Press: "With a shout-out to two autoworkers who are learning new skills, Obama unveiled his initiative to 'reform and strengthen community colleges ... so that they get the resources students and schools need -- and the results workers and businesses demand.' His plan would boost community colleges with $12 billion in federal money over 10 years."

*At the All-Star Game, he then joked about the country going broke and even trashed the Washington Nationals.

*The White House is also targeting Sen. Jon Kyl over stimulus spending. AP: "The White House on Tuesday released letters from four cabinet secretaries to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, citing Kyl's comments and outlining transportation, housing, Indian education and other projects in his home state they said would be eliminated if the senator has his way. Kyl, the No. 2 Senate GOP leader, has said the stimulus spending hasn't succeeded in boosting the economy and that it's adding to the deficit. He's suggested on his Senate Web site and in interviews that spending not already allocated be halted."

*AP notes that in addition to Secretary Clinton's major speech today, she heads off for an extended foreign trip tomorrow. "Clinton is trying to retake center stage as the administration's top foreign policy voice after four frustrating, low-profile weeks during which a fractured elbow forced her to cancel two overseas trips. Her diminishing presence abroad and at home, followed by her startling public criticism of the White House this week for delaying a key appointment, has prompted a flurry of speculation about whether her influence is waning inside President Barack Obama's Cabinet."

**Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings
*WaPo's Ruth Marcus asks "...why should Republican senators weighing President Obama's nominee give him more leeway to name justices to his liking than then-Sen. Obama was willing to accord President Bush when he voted against both Bush nominees?"

*Kyle wrote that Lindsey Graham has asked the same thing -- but the second term senator from South Carolina thinks Obama's standard was wrong. "Since he first met Sotomayor, Graham has maintained that a conservative would never nominate her to the Supreme Court -- but that the standard of supporting a judicial nominee once utilized by the president who nominated her is off-base."

*NYT: "In calm, low-key and at times legalistic testimony, Judge Sotomayor rebuffed hours of skeptical questions and stuck resolutely to her message that if confirmed to the Supreme Court, she would not let personal bias influence her rulings. In the first two hours alone, she said she ruled by applying "the law" or some variation at least two dozen times."

*WSJ: "Judge Sonia Sotomayor, parrying tough Republican questioning, distanced herself from President Barack Obama's comments about judicial empathy, saying, "We don't apply feelings to facts."

*LA Times: Sotomayor "backed away from her 'wise Latina' speeches and the suggestion that ethnic identity might sway her decisions." "Our life experiences do permit us to see some facts and understand them more easily than others," she said. But the "law is what commands the result," she noted.

*Milbank: "One slip of the tongue could doom her otherwise secure appointment -- and the pressure to avoid error was evident in her eyelids. When Leahy asked her to explain her controversial remark about the superior judgment of a wise Latina woman, she blinked no fewer than 247 times during her answer. When Sessions asked her about the same remark, she blinked an additional 146 times. Her overall blink rate appeared to be between 90 and 100 per minute in the morning, calming to about 50 in the afternoon."

**Health Care
*"Congressional Democrats moved the ball forward on healthcare reform Tuesday, introducing a $1 trillion bill in the House as a key Senate panel inched closer to a deal. Three House committees will begin marking up their legislation before the end of the week, setting up what would be a historic vote on President Obama's signature domestic issue in just over two weeks," The Hill reports.

*The health care bill unveiled by House Democrats yesterday calls for a tax -- on families earning between $350,000 and $500,000, an additional 1% in income tax. For those earning more than $1 million: an additional 5.4% tax. USA Today: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bill will move quickly and reiterated that the House will vote on legislation before lawmakers return to their districts for the August recess. "Inaction is not an option for us," Pelosi said.

*"Democrats invoked 60 years of legislative futility and plenty of old ghosts Tuesday as they insisted that this is the year they'll make health care available to all Americans. But party leaders have a long way to go -- in a very short time -- before Pelosi, Dingell and the rest can say they've achieved this long-sought legislative landmark," Politico reports.

*Obama's campaign arm, Organizing for America, launched a 30-second TV ad in eight states, including six that a moderate Senate Democrat represents, encouraging residents to tell their senator to support health reform. ABC's Rick Klein notes that "pressuring Democrats to follow the president on health care reform marks a strategic shift by the DNC -- and represents the biggest gamble yet by the president's old campaign apparatus to turn the campaign's 13-million-person-plus army into legislative action."

**Palin Watch
*Guess what: Another ethics complaint was filed against Sarah Palin. The 18th such filing alleges she abused her office by campaigning for the vice presidency while accepting her gubernatorial salary.

*Jonathan Martin doesn't find many Democrats who want Palin to campaign with them, as she said she would. "Interviews with a number of the most conservative Democrats in the House and Senate induced an awkward, stare-at-your-shoes unease when the prospect of appearing with Palin was posed."

*At Huffington Post, John Kerry responds to Sarah Palin's op ed. "She manages to write about the climate change action in Congress without ever mentioning the reason we are doing this in the first place. It's like complaining about the cost of repairing a roof without factoring in the leaks destroying your home."

*Over to Palin's colleague from South Carolina. Some interesting reading from The State, which reprints e-mails from reporters trying to get a scoop on the Sanford story. Some outlets, like Fox News Channel and the Washington Times, claimed to offer a friendly outlet if the governor chose to make his case. But our favorite: ABC's Jake Tapper trashing a "Today" show piece, and later trying to throw David Gregory under the bus.

**Campaign Stuff
*CA-32 Special Election: "State Board of Equalization member Judy Chu has won the special election for the 32nd Congressional District seat to become the first Chinese American woman in the House of Representatives. With 100% of the ballots counted, Chu, a Democrat, had 62% of the vote in Tuesday's election for the San Gabriel Valley-based seat vacated when Hilda Solis became U.S. Labor secretary," L.A. Times reports.

*IL Sen: What was Mark Kirk doing in the Senate GOP weekly luncheon?

*PA Sen: The NRSC endorsed Pat Toomey, Politico reports.

*The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Harry Reid's huge fundraising total -- $11 million through June, with as much as $25 million by November 2010 -- is deterring most potential foes.

*Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) may be the subject of another probe, Washington Post reports.

--Kyle Trygstad and Mike Memoli