An NFL Thanksgiving feature that didn’t involve messages home from overseas troops and the long played-out theme of handing out a turkey leg to the game MVP showed how the league is encouraging American kids to get 60 minutes of exercise daily. As part of that, Cowboy DeMarcus Ware got to go to the White House lawn and toss a few footballs with President Barack Obama.

A female in our contingent said, “I like that the President is a left-handed.” She noted it was a lock that the new president in 2009 would be a lefty, since John McCain also is left-handed.

Responded one guy, “There are a lot of reasons to like and dislike the President, but being left-handed isn’t one of them.” Discuss.

Many Siouxlanders recall the time when Greg Lund was the popular KCAU-TV evening anchor. Lund’s two-decade Channel 9 stint ended when he left in 1997 to work for Gateway computers, where he eventually became senior manager of corporate communications.

Lund’s son Andrew Lund is pushing Republican Party ideals, although he’s doing it in a much warmer climate out in San Diego. For more than a year, Lund has led the San Diego Young Republicans group, which is made up of professionals who back Republican candidates through fundraising and other efforts. Of course, since it’s in San Diego, one of the SDYR activities includes a beach party.

Lund, who has a likeness to his father, also has a gig on a San Diego NBC station, where he does a point/counterpoint thing with a young Democrat on politics. A recent piece included whether Sarah Palin should be supported in a 2012 presidential bid. (Thanks to Sioux Cityan Suzan Stewart for this tip.)

It’s not surprising that some in the Republican Party want to make sure candidates who run under the party banner align well with party principles. In a time when the New York Congressional candidate for a special election was seen as too moderate and the longtime GOP seat was lost, some want to make sure solid conservative candidates are running for office.

So, Domenico Montanaro unveils today on FirstRead, some Republican National Committee members are listing 10 10  “conservative principles the group of signees wants potential candidates to abide by.” The list includes market-based reforms in standing in opposition to both climate change and health care reform efforts.

Who’s on board with the litmus test? Among the 10 sponsors are Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Steve Scheffler of Iowa. Many will recall multimillionare Ricketts from a failed 2006 bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., for a six-year Senate position, while Scheffler is a well-known social conservative who heads the Iowa Christian Alliance (formerly Christian Coalition of Iowa). What they are supporting is being called the Resolution on (Ronald) Reagan’s Unity Principle for Support of Candidates.

Crunching some numbers as we await the arrival of Sarah Palin and her “Going Rogue: An American Life” book tour on Dec. 6 at the Barnes  & Noble Booksellers in Sioux City. POLITICO reports former Alaska Gov. Palin has been signing books for exactly 1,000 people in her few stops thus far. I suspect that means a lot of Siouxland people who want to get a signed copy of “Going Rogue” will be Going Without.

We know the setup at B&N is that Palin will sign two copies per person, with her name only and no personalization like including “To Barbara, All The Best.” This booksigning tour is a business, and keeping to the schedule is key. Palin thus far has signed her allotment, got on the bus and been whisked away, much to the dismay of chanting Palin fans.

POLITICO reports 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Palin has been producing 1,000 signatures per hour, at roughly four seconds per signature. If so, and if each person presumably has two books along, it will take right at two hours to finish the job. That means she’ll likely wrap around 3 p.m., in good stead to make it to the following stop at 5 p.m. in Sioux Falls, 90 miles up Interstate 29 from the Sioux City mall.

The question:  How early will you get in line to make sure you’re one of the first 1,000 to get a wristband to have “Going Rogue” signed? As of now, the wristbands are slated to be distributed at 7 a.m., six hours prior to when Palin will take pen in hand in Siouxland.

The Des Moines Register this evening has released additional details from a poll done on high-profile political figures. The one that Tom Beaumont has just dropped on his blog shows 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is in strong favor among Iowa Republicans. But her unfavorability rating among Iowans overall is 55 percent, compared to the 37 percent who view the former Alaska governor unfavorably, the poll showed.

And Beaumont summarizes, “Those feelings are intense: The percentage of Iowans who view Palin very unfavorably is more than twice as large as the percentage who view her very favorably.” Right — those who deride Palin as “Caribou Barbie” do so with profound dislike, while fans will line up for hours to see her in a Dec. 6 Sioux City book tour and not resent the time spent whatsoever.

The part of The Register poll from yesterday shows President Barack Obama’s job approval rating has fallen to 49 percent, down four percent from September and from 68 percent as he assumed the presidency in January. Obama got 54 percent of the vote in Iowa a year ago.

The perceived wariness of a few U.S. Senate moderate Democrats on moving forward the health reform bill cobbled together by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dissipated yesterday. All 58 Democrats and the two independents who typically vote with the majority party Dems held together and passed the bill (with an $858 billion pricetag) along to Senate floor debate on 60-39 vote. The vote from tri-state senators saw, of course, the three Democrats (Tom Harkin, Tim Johnson and Ben Nelson) voting affirmatively, while Republicans Mike Johanns, Charles Grassley and John Thune voted nay.

“This is a momentous, pivotal vote,” Harkin said.

Harkin — who could not appear in person when 1,500 Iowa Democrats attended the Jefferson-Jackson event last night, but gave a message via video — said now is the time for the bill particulars to be chewed over. One timeline  heard today is the Senate could work up to Dec. 23 to try to finalize health care reform, but a vote may not happen until mid-January. The House has passed a bill, while the Senate is still not there. If the Senate does, the process would involve a reconciliation between the House and Senate versions.

“We can see the finish line now, but we are not there,” said  Reid.

Check out the You Tube video below to see the roll call vote.

Or for a wry look at the 2,000-plus page Senate health care bill, view the video below.

An important vote on health care reform comes off tomorrow, when the U.S. Senate will undertake a procedural vote on the recently introduced Patient Protection and Affordability Act. It is not a vote to pass the bill out of the Senate, but to move full consideration of the bill in the chamber. There are 58 Democrats, 40 Republicans and two independents who typically vote with the Dems, but perception is that a few Democrats could balk and aid plans by the GOP senators to filibuster the bill if 60 votes aren’t garnered.

That would be too bad, says U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat who hails from nearby Vermillion, S.D. Johnson today is saying the bill deserves the opportunity to be considered on the Senate floor, and so thinks the measure should be passed along tomorrow without all the hue-and-cry. He likes that the bill is estimated to give health care coverage to 94 percent of Americans as part of the effort to stand “up to the big insurance companies on behalf of the American people.”

You can count on Republicans John Thune of South Dakota, Charles Grassley of Iowa and Mike Johanns to vote nay tomorrow, while Johnson and Tom Harkin of Iowa will vote affirmatively. That leaves Ben Nelson (above), a Nebraska Democrat as a wild card, and the National Republican Committee is pressuring Nelson to vote ‘no.’ Additionally, Nelson will come to his voting presumbly having digested the editorial by the Omaha World-Herald to scuttle the Patient Protection and Affordability Act now.

In a release two days ago,  Nelson doesn’t say how he’ll vote, but I’ll read that he’ll be a ‘yes.’ You decide what this means:

“Some who define it as a vote in front of the (Harry) Reid bill are misinformed, or are intentionally trying to mislead people. I remember that some in my party said the same thing — equating this procedural vote with a vote for a bill — when the Republicans were in charge. If your goal is to obstruct, that’s a convenient argument.

“… In reality, the meaning of the motion to proceed is very simple: It’s a motion to commence debate and an opportunity to make changes. Let me say it again: it is a motion to start debate on a bill and to try to improve it. If you don’t like the bill, then why would you block your own opportunity to amend it? Why would you stop senators from doing the job they’re elected to do — debate, consider amendments and take action on an issue affecting every American?”

It’s worth noting the Senate PPAA bill is not the same as what passed out of the House two Saturdays ago. Apparently the important 2009 federal health care reform bill votes must occur on Saturdays.

A report Tuesday showed the obesity rate for Americans hanging (like a gut) again in the low-30s percent, while pointing to the rate climbing to 43 percent by 2018. Obesity is measured at 30 pounds above a healthy weight, and if it rises to the 2018 projection, one-fifth of all health care costs will be related to medical conditions arising from being considerably overweight.

I asked U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, what federal officials can do to reduce obesity at a time when  health care reform is being debated in Congress. He said the federal government can push a few things, but said Americans need to take control of their own health.

Said Grassley, a three-mile-per-day jogger: “The answer is yes (for federal action), but not very directly, because you aren’t going to control what people can put into their mouth and whether or not they walk enough and exercise enough or what they eat that is unhealthy.”

Grassley laid out four areas for action: (1) more education to aid healthy living decisionmaking (he cited education being instrumental in reducing smoking rates), (2) having more doctors encouraging preventive medicine when speaking with patients and (3) creating healthier school meals, which is something Iowa’s other senator, Tom Harkin, frequently has worked towards. The fourth Grassley suggestion is Congress creating an opening for health insurance companies to have differing insurance premium costs depending on whether a person is obese.

“I would propose that we have different premium levels for people that don’t have a healthy lifestyle,” Grassley said. “By the way, a Safeway executive has made several appearances on Capitol Hill talking about how his company does that through their health insurance program, where they give people money for first-dollar costs of health care, and they get more money if they have a healthy lifestyle.”

Grassley again relayed his continuing opposition to a soda pop tax, which had at one point this summer been pitched as a means to pay for health reform.

“I’m not convinced that would work, and I am very convinced it is a nuisance tax,” he said.

The even-year November elections have been very interesting in South Dakota lately, and will be again in 2010. Word today is that the new state smoking ban will be referred to voters in November 2010 after bar and casino owner efforts to petition for a decision by voters proved successful. Earlier, the secretary of state ruled some of the petition signatures were invalid, but an appeal to a circuit court resulted in a decision that enough signatures were valid to put the matter on the ballot.

Smoking bans and abortion restrictions (which went before voters in 2006 and 2008) remain topics that energize people. They might not be able to flesh out detailed positions of the Republican or Democratic candidates they’ll vote for, but South Dakotans, like many Americans, typically have a strongly-held position on issues like smoking and abortion. Beyond the selection of a new governor and determining whether federal legislators John Thune and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin will be returned to office, the South Dakota 2010 election will be intriguing.

Just got word that western Iowans will finally be able to see Terry Branstad in a public event. Branstad still remains in the coy “exploratory” candidate committee phase even while having hired campaign staff, so we know he’s running for the 2010 governor position sought by five other Republicans as well. Branstad will meet with the Sac County Republican Party Central Committee tomorrow night in Sac City, then on Dec. 14 he’ll speak at the noon meeting of the Sioux City Downtown Rotary Club.

Branstad’s schedule released by communications director Tim Albrecht also includes stops through mid-December in Fort Dodge, Centerville, Kalona and Cedar Rapids. After joining the stage with the other GOP candidates for the first time on Nov. 7 in Des Moines, Branstad is ready to rachet up his public appearances. The other men in the race to unseat first-term Democratic Gov. Chet Culver are Sioux Cityans Chris Rants and Bob Vander Plaats, state lawmakers Jerry Behn and Rod Roberts and Cedar Rapids insurance executive Christian Fong.

It will be interesting to see how Branstad is received here — whether it’s as the Alpha Male who’ll crowd out the rest of the field en route to a primary victory that some envision or as the guy on dicey terms with social conservatives over his perceived inability to take a sufficiently tough stance against gay marriage.