**President Obama
*"On a day when 14 U.S. servicemen and drug agents were killed in helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, the largest such toll in more than four years, momentum continued to build to send more troops to the war zone," L.A. Times reports.

*"The Obama administration is expected Tuesday to name 100 utility projects that will share $3.4 billion in federal stimulus funding to speed deployment of advanced technology designed to cut energy use and make the electric-power grid more robust," Wall Street Journal reports.

*Politico: Conservatives are looking at some of the things Obama is doing "with a mix of indignation and amazement" and wondering: "Imagine the fuss if George W. Bush had done these things?"

*"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been spending a lot of time with her one-time colleagues lately, mounting a charm offensive on Capitol Hill nearly unprecedented for an administration's top diplomat," Roll Call reports.

*Gallup: "After peaking at 59% last November, Vice President Joe Biden's favorable rating continues to decline and now stands at 42%. That barely exceeds his 40% unfavorable rating, and is easily his worst evaluation since last year's Democratic National Convention."

**Congress
**Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "announced Monday that he will include a government-backed insurance plan in the chamber's health-care reform legislation, a key concession to liberals who have threatened to oppose a bill without such a public option. Reid's decision was a reversal from two weeks ago, when the Nevada Democrat appeared inclined to set aside the idea -- among the most divisive in the reform debate -- in an attempt to avoid alienating party moderates," Washington Post reports.

*Reid's "proposal came with an escape hatch: A state could refuse to participate in the public insurance plan by adopting a law to opt out. Even so, the announcement was a turning point in the debate over how much of a role government should play in an overhauled health care system, and it set the stage for a test of Democratic party unity," New York Times reports.

*Reid "dismissed White House worries -- and bucked his own reputation as a cautious lawmaker -- by announcing Monday he'll push ahead with a public health insurance option, even though he's short of the 60 votes needed to pass it. The move amounted to a major gamble by the Nevada Democrat, who is betting that he can sway the last few moderates onto his plan for a public option that would allow states to opt out by 2014. But at the same time, Democratic Senate aides expressed worries that Reid was going too far, too fast with a strategy that allows no room for error," Politico reports.

*"Some House Republicans are growing frustrated that their leaders have not yet introduced a healthcare reform alternative. For months, the message from House GOP leaders on a healthcare bill has been similar to ads for yet-to-be-released movies: Coming soon. According to several GOP lawmakers, the leadership is split over how to proceed in terms of unveiling an alternative to the final Democratic bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) intends to unveil as soon as this week," The Hill reports.

**NY-23 Special Election
*Politics Daily sat down with Doug Hoffman (C) over the weekend.

*New York Times: "From a command center inside the Days Inn here, conservatives from around the country are fighting to preserve what they see as the integrity of the Republican Party. Urged on by leaders like" Sarah Palin and Dick Armey, "they have come to defeat Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate for Congress in the 23rd District, whose views on abortion, same-sex marriage and taxes they deem insufficiently conservative for anyone running as a Republican."

*The Hill: "The GOP could lose its fifth of five big special elections in two years -- a development that has Republicans asking why the irregular races continue to bedevil their party, even as it rebounds in other ways."