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.

U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., is a guy some Republicans want to see a run for president. After his bruising 2004 win that knocked Democratic heavyweight Tom Daschle out of a seat, Thune can be forgiven if he takes his 2010 re-election bid with less concern and actually looks ahead at a 2012 presidential bid.

But he might want to watch his words, as he’s received some attention for a line in a CNN profile. Downplaying any presidential aspirations, Thune obliquely referenced the important Iowa caucuses in the selection process, speaking thusly: “I may go across Iowa, but it will be to get somewhere.” That caused Democratic activist Taylor West to tweet that Some of us think Iowa IS somewhere.

Of course, Thune has been in Iowa before, including earlier this year when he spoke at an event set by Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King and again Sept. 1 at an Ag Committee hearing in Sioux City. (He’s pictured at right, beside U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.)

Speaking of the 2012 presidential contest, Republicans with either vague or profound thoughts, however coyly expressed, of running to unseat President Barack Obama are coming through Iowa with repetition. We had Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Saturday in Des Moines, former New York Gov. George Pataki spoke at a Scott County GOP function last night and on Friday and Saturday Texas Congressman Ron Paul will appear in Ames and Des Moines events. Paul, who has a strong Libertarian bent in with his Republicanism, had a small but impassioned band of supporters during the run-up to the January 2008 Iowa caucuses.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard a person pitch Steve King for president in 2012. Mere weeks after the 2008 election in which Barack Obama was selected as president, we at The Journal took a look at what names Northwest Iowans might see in the ‘12 race. (Yes, some readers said, too much, too soon.) That involved asking  Republican Party chairpersons in many surrounding counties to list their top three picks for four years off. A county chairwoman was quick to put King’s name on her list.

With GOP people like Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney and others taking top mentions in early 2009, I forgot about King as a possible presidential candidate. The speculation was whether this would be the year King ran for governor, which he ultimately did not pursue.

Then last month, when interviewing Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for a profile piece on King, I asked about her perceived interest in the presidency. Before saying she had no intention to pursue the presidency, Bachmann first brought up King’s name as getting mention on Capitol Hill.

And last night, Dave Price of WHO, the Des Moines NBC affiliate, aired an interview with King in which the four-term congressman won’t rule out running for president. And why should he? King is beloved by the conservative base of the Republican Party, which in many states has a big role in pushing candidates toward victories in primaries and caucuses. King loves having a national voice on issues of importance, which doesn’t hurt his profile with the base. (Yeah, sure, he riles up Democrats, that’s a given.)

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, who King has noted is essentially his twin, ran for president in 2008. Why shouldn’t Steve King?

As I came in this morning, I began my day at 9 a.m. with an initial tweet on Twitter. I predicted Chicago would not be picked as the site of the 2016 Olympics by the International Olympic Committee and asked if President Obama critics would pile on him for yet again being ineffectual. (Of course,  I did all that in tweet limit of 140 characters, as in: When #Chicago isn’t awarded 2016 Olympics, will prez critics see his recruitment effort as one more Obama failure?)

@TheBeanWalker quickly answered that that would happen.  And an hour later, it was announced Chicago hadn’t landed the Olympics. Cue the slew of critical comments from the right, which are lighting up Twitter. Here’s one from @beatcanvas, who frequently chimes in on this blog: The Champ is knocked out in the first round. Obama is #weaksauce.

And here’s @mpoppel Glenn Beck will be furious. RT @jonwardeleven all that jet fuel [to Copenhagen], and for what?

(To begin, big news — this is the 1,000th blog post of Politically Speaking since a 2006 launch. Yawn away, if you must. I swear a good 200 of them have been worth reading.)

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, (above, right with Sen. Kent Conrad, D- N.D.) today said lessons he took back from the August congressional recess town hall meetings are informing his efforts as the Senate Finance Committee on which he sits works on health care reform. Grassley said the strident tone of those speaking out against reform showed Iowans don’t want a major government role that shuts out the private sector, which ties in with his insistence since March that a public health insurance option is a nonstarter that would result in his ‘nay’ vote.

In the weekly conference call with reporters, Grassley has strong doubts that a bipartisan bill will emerge. In spite of a bill including a public option going down to defeat in the finance committee yesterday on 8-15 vote, Grassley said “I don’t have confidence that we can keep a public option off the floor” of the Senate. That comes a day after Iowa’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin said there would be enough Senate votes to pass a plan with a public option.

Going back to the town halls, Grassley related “I got the feeling that people did not want a government-run health plan.” Iowans felt that way, he said, “since government had done so bad” in programs regarding economic stimulus and into the functioning of auto companies.

A reporter asked Grassley if there was a disconnect on Americans wanting to beat back a bigger government role in health care at the same time so many people are happy with the federal Medicare program.  Grassley said Medicare is certainly a big part of the social fabric after so many decades, but people put the brakes on a new health care role for the feds. “They don’t want any more of it,” he said.

Grassley was quizzed on whether he was concerned that if he voted for a bipartisan health care reform bill that angry Iowa Republicans would put forth a fellow GOP person, forcing a primary for his 2010 re-election effort. “The best policy is the best politics,” was his response.

Grassley said he hadn’t heard any names as the Iowa Democratic Party reportedly is seeking a senatorial candidate with more heft than the current candidates, Bob Krause of Fairfield and State Sen. Tom Fiegen of Clarence. Certainly Iowa Dems should be looking to field a salty candidate to give him the best battle, Grassley said.

On one last topic, Grassley was asked whether President Obama should be going to Copenhagen tomorrow to personally pitch for his adopted hometown of Chicago to get the 2016 Summer Olympics. Grassley said he had no problem with that — presumably Brazil’s leader will be touting Rio de Janeiro to the International Olympic Committee, so it’s OK for Obama as America’s chief executive to be doing so too. The IOC decision is due in two days.

Derek Eadon had a hand in presidential candidate Barack Obama’s first campaign event in Iowa back in 2007 at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School. Now he’s back in Iowa, heading the offshoot Organizing For America group in pushing key elements of the Obama issue arsenal toward legislative action. OFA is a distinct organization separate from Obama’s campaign committee — OFA works on issues, not electoral politics, but Eadon is among those who’ve worked for both.

He talked via cell on his way to Sioux City for an OFA event that will train western Iowans how to push for health care reform. The 11 a.m. Saturday event at Morningside College requires registration, but is open to anyone. In another Sioux City tie, Eadon said the second OFA office in Iowa (after the Des Moines HQ that opened in March 2009) will be placed by November here in the metro. He said it’s important eastern Iowa places like Cedar Rapids don’t get everything, plus OFA wants to launch seasoned persons to help frame the health care reform debate in the important Northwest Iowa area.

Eadon said Organizing For America since April has held more than 250 events in Iowa about the basics of health care reform, including about 20 in this area. He said Obama sees cost containment, choice and access to quality health care and health insurance as the key elements to reform. Eadon said the hot button topic of a public option for access to a government health care program is something Obama supports, because there’s been no more enticing option raised by either proponents or critics of reform efforts.

“He hasn’t heard anything better,” Eadon said.

He said the agitated, no-health-reform, no-way tone of many August congressional recess town hall meetings on health reform haven’t put Obama or other Democrats on the defensive. Eadon said the town halls were a sound exercise in Americans sharing views with national lawmakers. He predicts health care reform will pass in 2009, with the key timing piece being how soon the Senate Finance Committee (on which Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sits) passes out a bill.

Lately I’ve heard the conservative talk radio (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity) lament that critics of Obama administration policies felt hamstrung, that they ran the risk of being called racist for their positions. That topic reached a  fever point today, after former President Jimmy Carter said many pointed anti-Obama comments, like those seen during town hall meetings in August, have a genesis in racism.

As Carter told Brian Williams of NBC, “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.” Cue firestorm.

Writing about race is something journalists must enter with wariness. As Joe Scarborough wrote in a tweet today, “discussions about race devolve as quickly as abortion debates.” (That certainly happens in stories on The Journal’s Web site.) But there appears to be some element of racism — I’m not saying most, just some — in Obama criticism. I still recall being out in Northwest Iowa as the November 2008 results rolled in and it became clear Obama would defeat Republican John McCain. A woman sniffed about the White House becoming instead “the Black House.”

A local Democrat this morning agreed President Obama doesn’t want the attention that Carter’s comment drew. True to form, Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs didn’t want to be drawn into the topic, saying Obama doesn’t agree with Carter’s assessment.

The topic drew a spirited debate this morning on “The Today Show,” where Republican pollster Frank Luntz said race has nothing to do with opposition to Obama’s policies on health care reform and other public policy pieces. A professor disagreed with Luntz, and the Sept. 12 Maureen Dowd column on the aftermath of the Congressman Joe Wilson”You lie!” outburst was referenced.

Dowd wrote that what she “heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!” The professor agreed with Dowd, saying he heard the unspoken phrase “uppity N.”

In my last blog post before a three-day weekend away, I referenced South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson yelling “You lie!” at President Obama during the joint session address on Wednesday. I figured it was the last time I’d mention Wilson in this blog, but should have known better. Now there’s a tie to Wilson by Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King — he’s backing the fellow Republican, as King says it’s important health care reform dissenters not be “muzzled” as the debate goes on in D.C.

King had been harshly critical of Obama himself. On Sept. 8, the day before Obama speech, King sent out a press release titled: “Yes, We’ve Heard All the Lies Mr. President.” Within, he states: “It is unseemly for a President of the United States to declare that truth-tellers are liars.”

As reported in Politico, King is circulating a pro-Wilson letter, urging colleagues to sign in support of the congressman who apologized to Obama for his outburst that was spurred by whether illegal immigrants would get health coverage. It’s believed to be the first time a member of Congress uttered such a charge against a president during a joint session address.

King says Wilson is a “gentleman,” and Obama elevated the rhetoric with his address statement that “prominent politicians” were lying about the facts of health care reform. King urges his fellow Republicans to join him in support of Wilson as he could face a reprimand of some sort by the Democratic house leadership.

There was some thought that “You lie!” was a political loser for Republicans, that the momentum to beat back health care after the August recesses had been severed by the Wilson outburst. King wants the GOP to stand by Wilson, to stay on the offensive.

ADD AT 11:55 A.M. — King appeared on Fox News this morning, talking about Wilson and “criminal enterprise” ACORN.

We’re in the midst of a major news cycle after last night’s address by President Obama to a joint session of Congress, where he very pointedly took on critics of health care reform. With Congress back in town after the long recess with impassioned town hall meetings on the health care topic, Obama said “now is the season for action.”

The president added, “If you misrepresent what is in this plan, we will call you out… I will not accept the status quo as a solution.”

Of course then Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina leapt into public consciousness with his “You lie” yell at the president. Wilson apologized for his outburst when Obama said health coverage wouldn’t be accessed by illegal immigrants. Today on conservative talk radio, Wilson is being praised for his yell, in spite of his backing off with the apology.

And health care reform gets another Iowa player in U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, following his elevation yesterday to chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Harkin gave up the Ag Committee chairmanship, but remains a member. The HELP Committee position came up with the death of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy.

That aside, health care reform isn’t the only major issue on the congressional plate. Energy policy will be a big one, as the House in summer passed ‘cap-and-trade’ legislation to stem carbon emissions. The bill is seen as having little chance in the Senate, but South Dakota State Rep. Dan Lederman, R-Dakota Dunes, is working to make sure U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson,  D-S.D., gets the message that the energy bill is bad policy.

Lederman is circulating an on-line petition and asking South Dakotans to join him in the message that the bill would do nothing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He writes to Johnson: “Reject any and all legislation that enacts new energy taxes and/or establishes a national cap and trade policy that would electricity and energy prices to increase.”

Associated Press photo

President Obama held a news conference in prime time last night to address his reasons for urging Congress to plow ahead with health care reform efforts. The AP analysis that fronts The Journal this morning reads “Doubts creeping in on health care overhaul,” with the percentage who approve with the way Obama is handling health care dropping from 53 percent in April to 50 percent now.

Obama used a more personal pitch last night, urging Americans to think about their encounters with the health care system and the need to alter the system. That pitch came a day after a poll two days ago showed Obama’s own approal rating had fallen from 74 percent to down to 55 percent.

“Government-run” health care is a blood pressure raiser for out-of-power Republicans; reform efforts are regularly roasted these days on conservative talk radio. But yesterday in a conference call with Iowa reporters, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, certainly no fan of reform as it stands, cautioned fellow Republicans that doing nothing regarding health care could come back to bite the GOP.

“If we don’t do something on health care reform, the voters are more apt to blame Republicans than Democrats,” Grassley offered. (That’s a statement that will drive the most conservative wing GOP’ers wild, putting more fuel in the talks to raise a fellow Republican to run against Grassley in a 2010 senatorial primary.)

The other senator from Iowa, Democrat Tom Harkin, just wrapped his morning conference call with reporters and health reform was a big topic. Harkin took umbrage with the Congressional Budget Office not seeing savings from wellness and prevention measures he’s put into reform legislation. Harkin said that’s a “nuts” decision, since “mega billions” in costs will be pared via wellness for such diseases as diabetes.

Harkin also chided the insurance companies and drug companies “who love the status quo” in their public relations efforts to derail health reform this year. Of course, it’s no surprise Obama and Democrats are pushing reform, he campaigned on it last year. That’s something the Republican Obama defeated in November, John McCain, acknowledged two nights ago on the Fred Thompson radio show — McCain may not like the track of the reform talk, but said “elections have consequences.”

One more local tie to health care reform: Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King is among the U.S. House members who this week pledged to read any health care reform bill before voting. The Pledge To Read movement is to ensure that what sometimes occurs — a bill plops in at wee hours, a vote follows shortly thereafter — won’t happen with health care reform. The pledge effort doesn’t include the next step, but figure that once King reads whatever bill arises, he’ll then vote against it.