**President Obama
*CNN/Opinion Research Poll: "For the first time since Obama took office, fewer than half of Americans agree with the president on issues important to them. ... A majority, 51 percent, disagree -- a jump of 10 percentage points since April."

*In an interview with NBC, Obama hinted that an Afghanistan decision will wait until after a runoff election there.

*The New York Times is the latest now to speculate on the fate of White House counsel Greg Craig. "Craig said he had no plans to leave, and White House officials said the president still had faith in him. But colleagues and Democrats close to the White House said they expected him to move on around the end of the year, and they have been talking about possible replacements."

*CEO Pay: "The Treasury Department is expected in the next few days to order companies that received huge government bailouts last year to slash the base salaries of their top executives by an average of 90 percent and cut their total compensation in half," AP reports, citing "a person familiar with the matter."

*Politico's top dogs wrote about the White House's strategy to marginalize it's top opponents. Communication Director Anita "said that in August, as the president's aides planned for the fall, they made 'a fundamental decision that we needed to be more aggressive in both protecting our position and in delineating our differences with those who were attacking us.'"

AP reports, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said the Obama administration appears to be launching a Richard Nixon-like political strategy of making an "enemies list" of people who disagree with the president.

*Meanwhile, the White House is "swamped" with letters.

**Health Care
*Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has become the center of attention on health care, Washington Post reports. "Already the courtship has entailed dinner with administration budget chief Peter Orszag, an invitation to confer with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and an hour-long session with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, during which the president "dropped by" for 25 minutes. On Tuesday, Collins met with a group of centrist senators who are trying to forge a middle ground."

"House Democratic leaders sounded bullish Wednesday after launching an all-hands-on-deck effort to win support for a 'robust' public insurance option in their health care bill. 'We think we have the votes now,' Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.) told reporters. 'We have the votes to pass a robust public option,' " Roll Call reports.

*Dana Milbank noticed that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has given the same health care speech on the Senate floor 50 times since June.

*The failure of the Medicare Physicians Fairness Act to be brought up for debate on the Senate floor "immediately raised questions among fellow Democrats over Reid's handling of healthcare reform strategy and gave Republicans an opening," The Hill reports.

**Congress
*"When economists met privately with Democratic leaders of the House on Wednesday, the topic was how to pump billions more into the economy to stimulate job creation. They left with a homework assignment: How to cut trillions from future federal budget deficits," New York Times reports.

*"Today, after serving nearly 47 years in the Senate, Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) becomes the third-longest-serving Senator in U.S. history, passing Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who died in August," Roll Call reports. "In addition to this milestone, Inouye, 85, a former House Member, will also be the fifth-longest-serving Member of Congress in history, passing Rep. Carl Vinson (D-Ga.), who served from 1914 to 1965 and chaired the Armed Services Committee."

*The oldest living former senator, Cliff Hansen, died yesterday at the age of 97, NBC reports.

**Campaign Stuff
*"Many top Republicans are growing worried that the party's chances for reversing its electoral routs of 2006 and 2008 are being wounded by the flamboyant rhetoric and angry tone of conservative activists and media personalities, according to interviews with GOP officials and operatives," Politico reports.

*Cillizza reports that Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D) "is contemplating a primary challenge to Sen. Blanche Lincoln in 2010." If he were to run he "would try to capitalize on the left's discontent toward Lincoln on health care," though he "is a somewhat odd liberal champion."

*FL Sen: "All signs point to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist having a real Senate primary on his hands. Marco Rubio has dramatically cut Crist's lead in the Republican primary to 15 percentage points, as the race appears to be taking on a whole new life," The Hill reports.

In turn, Crist has begun a move to the right. "The governor is running ads on WDBO and other news-talk stations that tout him as a fiscal conservative who wants to cut the size of the federal government."

*NY-23: "When the candidates in upstate New York's 23rd district special election file their first comprehensive fundraising reports tonight, it will become clear just how big of a financial toll the ideological rift among Republicans is taking on the party's nominee, state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava," Roll Call reports.

As Democrats now aim for the conservative candidate in NY-23, could it backfire on their chances? ABC's Chalian: "They need Scozzafava, the Republican, to remain strong and viable enough to split all the non-Democratic leaning vote with Hoffman. Today, the DCCC tried to help her along a bit."

*Chuck Todd, in an online chat yesterday: "I think Pawlenty has the potential to be a serious player in 2012... He comes from a neighboring state to Iowa (minnesota) so the launching pad is in good shape...That said, I have noticed that Pawlenty is coming across a tad hamhanded in his courtship of conservatives. It's surprised some in the White House who I think quietly worried about him more so than any other potential candidate out there right now."

*NYC Mayor: An ad for Democrat Bill Thompson's campaign urges voters to tell Mike Bloomberg that "eight is enough." He tells the Daily News that, if elected, he'll seek a referendum on term limits again.

*OR Gov: "Republican state Sen. Jason Atkinson announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign for governor, leaving the Republican race to two candidates of uncertain strength and a lot of speculation," Oregonian reports.

--Kyle Trygstad and Mike Memoli