**President Obama
*At a San Francisco fundraiser, Obama said last night "he's determined to outlast his critics to move ahead on his agenda, including" health care and financial reforms, Bloomberg reports. "Some of our opponents think they are going to wear us down," Obama said. "I'm not tired, I'm refreshed."

*There's been some criticism of Obama's short New Orleans visit. But the Times-Picayune writes a generally positive editorial thanking him for the trip.

*Washington Post reports, "President Obama has not made significant progress in his plan to infuse federal courts with a new cadre of judges, and liberal activists are beginning to blame his administration for moving too tentatively on what they consider a key priority."

*The Detroit Free Press reports on the progress, or lack thereof, being made economically through the stimulus program. "Not many jobs -- 400 or so -- have been created or saved in the state so far by federal contracts under the stimulus bill, according to new data released Thursday by the Obama administration."

There was a greater impact in the South and Southwest, AP reports. "On paper, Colorado posted the largest increase of any state, more than 4,700 jobs, largely thanks to a contract to set up a call center to field questions about a change to digital cable. But the jobs were spread across multiple states, underscoring one of the many hiccups in the data. Like most contracting jobs, these were temporary, and most are already over. California, Florida, Tennessee and Texas also showed strong gains."

*As Obama weighs the advice of his war council, the Washington Times shines a spotlight on the shifting views of the conflict by National Security Adviser Jim Jones. "Jones declared as recently as 2006 that the Taliban had been tactically neutralized by coalition forces in southern Afghanistan. In the ensuing years, though, he has warned that the Taliban is expanding its reach while offering varying opinions on whether more U.S. troops are needed to fight them, a review of his public statements shows."

**Congress
*Washington Post: CBO has "given House leaders cost estimates for two competing versions of their plan to overhaul the health-care system, concluding that one comes within striking distance of the $900 billion limit set by President Obama and the other falls below it. House leaders have been working to lower the cost of the $1.2 trillion health-care package they offered in July." One plan, according to CBO, will cost $859 billion and the other at $905 billion.

*"In a week when the Senate Finance Committee passed a bill without a public option -- raising questions about whether that would prove the public option's last gasp -- progressives in both houses showed they won't go down without a fight. And Thursday proved that if President Barack Obama hoped the public option question would fade of its own accord, he probably won't get that lucky -- but will be forced to referee a compromise between liberals and moderates," Politico reports.

*"Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime friend and ally of Sen. John McCain, is now going a step further, Democrats say, and actually becoming the new McCain. Senior members of the majority party say the South Carolina Republican has displaced his Arizona mentor as the dealmaker on two big agenda items of the Obama administration: climate change and immigration," The Hill reports.

**Fundraising
*MA Sen: AG Martha Coakley is dusting her special election opponents in fundraising, pulling in $2.2 million since August. City Year founder Alan Khazei raised $850,000, Rep. Mike Capuano transferred $1.2 million and raised $343,000, and venture capitalist Stephen Pagliuca took in $205,000.

*PA Sen: Incumbent Arlen Specter has raised twice as much as Joe Sestak, and now has $8.7 million on hand.

*MO Sen: Roy Blunt (R) outraised Robin Carnahan (D), $2.3 million to $1.8 million.

*KY Sen: Jack Conway (D) raised $675,000, while Trey Grayson (R) raised about $643,000.

*AR Sen: Republicans aren't raising much in the race to challenge Blanche Lincoln (D).

**Campaign Stuff
*National Journal Political Insiders Poll: 44% of Democratic political operatives say enacting health care reform legislation similar to the House committee bills would most benefit their party in the 2010 midterm elections; 37% of GOP operatives say enacting no health care legislation would most benefit their party, with a close 35% saying the enactment of the House committee bills would help most.

*CO Sen: Lt. Gov. Jane Norton just lost a GOP primary opponent -- Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier announced yesterday he was leaving the Senate race to challenge Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) in the 7th District.

*Charlie Crist said he's unfazed by a dip in his poll numbers, the Miami Herald reports. As for losses in straw poll votes, he said: "I don't think much about it."

*The gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia were not interested in having Sarah Palin come to their states to campaign. "But it's a very different story in the Texas Republican gubernatorial primary, a conservative slugfest between Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison," CNN reports. Dates have not yet been finalized for a Perry-Palin event, however.

*The Daily News notes former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt's mixed view of Palin: she'd be a disaster in 2012, but helped the Republican ticket in 2008.

*IL Gov: Andy McKenna (R) has signed up Fred Davis as a media consultant. Davis was behind the McCain camp's "Celebrity" ads last year. "We don't do normal political stuff," Davis told Lynn Sweet. "We build excitement and buzz."

*PA Sen: Ned Lamont plans to endorse Rep. Joe Sestak (D) in what is a somewhat similar contest to his own 2006 race.

*OH Sen: Trailing her primary rival in the money chase, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) is dumping her finance team, the Dispatch reports.

**Stat of the Day: Gallup reports that the last two losing vice presidential nominees have -- for very different reasons -- seen their favorable ratings drop significantly since their peaks just after the 2004 and 2008 nominating conventions. John Edwards was at 59% in August 2004 -- since his extramarital affair hit the front pages last year, Edwards's rating is down to 21%. Sarah Palin was at 53% in August 2008, but is now down to 40% -- her lowest rating since roaring onto the political scene at the GOP convention.

**Sports Alert: The Phillies may have beaten the L.A. Dodgers last night, but 40% of baseball fans in America think the New York Yankees will win the World Series, according to new poll from Marist. Mike's Yankees play the L.A. Angels of Anaheim tonight.

**What To Watch This Weekend: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be on Encore Saturday night to discuss his films, and the cable station will air nine of his movies all day: Conan the Destroyer (8:30 a.m.); Red Sonja (10:15 a.m.); Kindergarten Cop (11:50 a.m.); Last Action Hero (1:45 p.m.); Batman & Robin (4:00 p.m.); Twins (6:10 p.m.); Eraser (8:00 p.m.); The Running Man (10:00 p.m.); The Terminator (11:45 p.m.).

--Kyle Trystad and Mike Memoli