"Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends..."

All week long, this line has been running through my head. It's from an Emerson, Lake, and Palmer suite of songs called "Karn Evil 9," from the album Brain Salad Surgery. Which, of course, has an album cover designed by H.R. Giger, the same guy who did the artwork (and designed the monster) for the movie Alien (looking at the album cover or the album sleeve, it's easy to see the similarities).

This past week was chock full (in the media sideshow, at least) of both Michael Jackson and Sarah Palin (known as "the gift that keeps on giving" to late-night comedians and political columnists alike). We will honor this media coverage throughout this week's Friday Talking Points column introduction, by inserting random ELP lyrics from the First Impression (Parts 1 & 2) and Third Impression of this song (the Second Impression is all instrumental...).

Step inside! Hello! We've the most amazing show
You'll enjoy it all we know
Step inside, step inside.

The other thing I can't get out of my head this week is the old Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" bit from the 1970s: "Breaking news -- this just in -- Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!"

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President Obama always knew he'd face an uphill battle to get healthcare reform legislation through Congress this year. He gave them a pretty generous timeline to do so, and we are fast approaching one of the dates on that timeline -- each house of Congress is supposed to pass their version of a healthcare reform bill by the time Congress breaks for the summer for five weeks. Achieving this milestone on Obama's timeline is now officially in doubt. So Obama should push back a little, and unveil the threat of using Article II, Section 3, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, which states that the president "may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them." In other words: call a "special session" of Congress. In even plainer language: cancel their month-long-plus vacation.

It's not exactly a secret that members of Congress sure do love their vacations. Oh, pardon me, I should have said "district work periods" and not "vacations." So sorry.

Ahem.

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Is President Obama just a politician, or is he a leader? That is the core question he faces in the debate over healthcare reform, and -- so far -- he seems to be more concerned with being a successful politician than being a successful leader. Because Obama appears to have one major goal in this entire undertaking -- in his words, "a bright line in the sand" -- which he will not back down from. That goal appears to be to sign a piece of legislation this year. What the legislation actually contains is of lesser importance than being able to say: "I got healthcare reform passed."

Of course, this may be too harsh an assessment in what is essentially the middle innings of this game. Appearances can be deceiving. And Obama's timing is more geared towards the "closing" moments of legislative battles than in the long slog which precedes these battles. To be fair, also (this being Washington), a lot of the real arm twisting is happening now, outside the public's view. And we simply have no way of knowing what is being defended, or (conversely) traded away, in discussions between the Obama administration and Congress.

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Three decades ago, the newspaper The Washington Post took down a sitting president. Now, it has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. Recently offering to sell access to its reporters and administration bigwigs for the low, low price of $25,000 per "salon" certainly didn't help improve the paper's image. But, little noticed among the mainstream media (but much more so among the zeitgeist), David Letterman has now played a major role not only in determining last year's election, but also in hounding Sarah Palin out of office (at least, according to Palin's close friends). This, if true, is a notable achievement for a late-night comedian... but nobody seems to be noticing.

Of course, now that Senator Al Franken has been sworn into the United States Senate, I guess the bar has been significantly raised for "impressiveness" among late-night comedians in general. Much as Ronald Reagan raised the bar for what could be achieved by ex-actors (to follow in his footsteps: Fred Thompson, Clint Eastwood, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others), Franken reclaiming Paul Wellstone's Minnesota Senate seat for Democrats will forever be a gauntlet to throw down for comics and entertainers who make a career of sniping at politicians from the sidelines (which applies equally to Letterman and people like Rush Limbaugh) -- who all, fairly or unfairly, can now be challenged to "put up or shut up" in the political arena.

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While it is so easy to slip into double meanings when talking about Sarah Palin (for example, I considered "Waiting For The Other Naughty Monkey Double Dare Red Shoe To Drop" as a title today... ahem), the title I did choose starts out as a literal one. Because I finally got around to reading Palin's most recent interview, in Runner's World magazine. And the article is accompanied by seven photos, not (as one may have expected) of Sarah Palin actually running, but instead of Sarah preparing to run. We'll get into double meanings later, but first, let's examine these preparing-to-run photos.

Most of the photos are just of Palin stretching or doing yoga, in running clothes. One prominently features her son Trig. But it's the last one that really gave me pause. It shows Governor Palin (we can still call her that for another few weeks) in what is close to a classic beauty queen pose (one leg slightly bent at the knee, hand on hip), in a bright red shirt and what I assume are black running shorts. But it's everything around Palin that really makes the photo.

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What separates humans from animals can be summed up as one simple thing -- the mastery of fire. Even "using tools" doesn't cut it anymore, as apes have been shown to use their own tools to achieve their own modest goals. When you get right down to it, the sole dividing line between us and the other creatures which crawl this planet can be drawn at the mastery of fire. Animals are still scared of fire. Humans, now, are not.

This may sound like a strange beginning to my annual Independence Day column, but I write today in praise of recreational explosions. In a word, fireworks. Fireworks and the Fourth Of July are inextricably linked in American history, beginning with the first time the holiday was celebrated, in 1777, one year after the Declaration of Independence. Celebrating the Fourth with fireworks is not some modern invention, but actually started at the creation of the holiday's celebration.

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This Saturday is, of course, Independence Day. It was also scheduled to be "Round Two" of the tea bag protests. But their planned protest seems to be fizzling like a wet firecracker. At least in the media's view, so far. Perhaps scheduling protests on one of the worst news days in the year is responsible for this inattention?

To refresh your memory (like a hot cup of your favorite caffeinated beverage of choice), the tea bag protest movement (out of solidarity with any group organizing protests, I will refrain from calling them "teabaggers") had their first public rallies across the country on April 15, or tax day. Now, this was a dandy idea -- protesting on the day most Americans hate and dread, when you have to file your income taxes. Feelings about April 15 may run deep, but they run deeply away from patriotic love of country. In other words, a good day for protesting.

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Welcome back to our monthly peek into President Barack Obama's poll numbers. And what a change from last month, when I jokingly started off the column "As a new month dawns with Al Franken still not seated in the Senate...." Franken is still not seated, but that is merely due to the fact that Congress is on one of its weeklong vacations (which they take regularly, after every two or three weeks of actual "work"). Once they return to Washington, Franken will become Senator Al Franken and the election of 2008 will finally be over.

But enough about Al. Because this column is about Barack, and (later) Bill. Every month, we've been charting Obama's approval ratings (as averaged by RealClearPolitics.com on their presidential poll-of-polls page). For a full explanation of why we choose these numbers over others, refer to the first Obama Poll Watch column. As always, at the bottom of the column are links to the full series, and the actual data points used, for anyone interested.

Obama's June poll numbers were down a bit. But not by much. If you had nothing but the inside-the-Beltway pundits to listen to (as opposed to actual data, that is), you might be pretty worried about Obama's standing in the polls right now. Dire warnings that "Obama's dropping in the polls" or "Obama's poll numbers are tanking" or even "Obama has lost the public" and other such tommyrot has been a common theme for a few weeks now.

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The 2008 election is finally over. Former Minnesota senator and incumbent Norm Coleman has officially conceded the race to Senator-Elect Al Franken, after the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously decreed that Franken was the winner. Two hundred and thirty-nine days after the election was held, it should be noted.

For his tenacity and patience, and for his 314-vote victory, we must congratulate Franken. Though the entire process was long and frustrating, the people of Minnesota saw the recount and state court case as a fair and legitimate process, which is important in disputed elections (as we're all aware). But, as far as state law is concerned, the Minnesota Supreme Court had the final say. If Coleman had pushed on to file a federal lawsuit in an attempt to put the issue before the United States Supreme Court, he risked the wrath of the state's voters for continuing to deny them a second seat in the Senate, with very little chance of success for Coleman holding onto his seat.

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Tomorrow will be an important date in the history of America's involvement in Iraq. Because it is the first milestone on the timeline for withdrawal that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki wrested from George W. Bush late last year. Which means, barring unforeseen circumstances (always a possibility in a war zone), tomorrow will mark the beginning of the end of America's military presence in Iraq.

What will happen tomorrow (and by some media reports, has already occurred) is that the American forces will completely pull out of Iraqi cities and withdraw to bases outside of the towns. Iraqis are already celebrating this withdrawal, and tomorrow has been declared "National Sovereignty Day" to mark the occasion in Iraq.

What this will ultimately mean depends on a number of important factors, none of which can be accurately predicted at this point. Looking back on this date in the future, it may be seen as overdue, timely, or rashly premature. Will the violence spike as a result? Will American troops begin returning home rapidly, or slowly? Will Maliki's government be able to stand on its own? Will the Iraq military be up to the job of providing security? Will the huge political questions the Iraqis have (successfully, so far) postponed finally be addressed in one way or another? About the only concrete analysis which can be made at this point is that there are more questions right now than answers.

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