Candy Crowley | BIO
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

Candy Crowley
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

She was a high-voltage candidate, lighting a fire in the grass roots of Republican-land - fresh, folksy and fierce.

She famously belittled her party's presidential opponent, Barack Obama, at her coming-out party at the 2008 Republican National Convention:

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

Sarah Palin remains a force - the most recognizable name in the Republican Party, a headline magnet.

Just over a year after the defeat of the Republican ticket, the Republican No. 2 is Amazon.com's No. 1 in nonfiction presales.

Writer of books, giver of speeches, muser of politics on an unusually active Facebook account. And robo-caller on behalf of a conservative group in this year's Virginia governor's race.

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Sarah Palin remains most recognizable name in the Republican Party.

Candy Crowley
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

She was a high-voltage candidate, lighting a fire in the grassroots of Republican-land - fresh, folksy and fierce.

She famously belittled her party's presidential opponent, Barack Obama, at her coming-out party at the 2008 Republican National Convention: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."

Sarah Palin remains a force - the most recognizable name in the
Republican Party, a headline magnet. Just over a year after the defeat of the Republican ticket, the Republican No. 2 is Amazon.com's No. 1 in non-fiction pre-sales. Writer of books, giver of speeches, muser of politics on an unusually active Facebook account. And robo-caller on behalf of a conservative group in this year's Virginia governor's race. Keep reading

Candy Crowley and David Gergen
CNN Senior Political Correspondents

Candy Crowley | BIO
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

Candy Crowley | BIO
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

On that unusually balmy Chicago night a year ago, the candidate who campaigned on what he called the "fierce urgency of now" became the president-elect who needed time.

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term," Barack Obama told the crowd in Grant Park. And he still needs time to turn a myriad of campaign promises into policy.

The list of the undones is long, varied and mostly difficult - immigration reform, new financial market regulations and a game-changing energy bill.

And compounding problems on the president's lengthy to-do list is that 2010 is an election year, generally an inefficient time for lawmaking.

Obama can put down several major campaign promises as "in the works."

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Candy Crowley
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

Candy Crowley and Ed Hornick
CNN

Race and politics are a combustible combo that explodes into headlines when an ex-president lights the fuse, as Jimmy Carter did recently.

"When a radical fringe element of demonstrators and others begin to attack the president of the United States as an animal or as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or when they wave signs in the air that said we should have buried Obama with Kennedy, those kinds of things are beyond the bounds," the Democrat told students at Emory University on Wednesday.

"I think people who are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be president because he happens to be African-American," he added.

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President Clinton met Tuesday with North Korea leader Kim Jong Il.

Candy Crowley | BIO
CNN Senior Political Correspondent

Long time no blog. Life is the teensiest bit nutty Chez Crowley but I’ve missed you. And I couldn’t pass up a chat about the story du jour (I’m feeling a little French today).

Anyway, so former President BiIl Clinton is on a mission in North Korea to free those two American journalists sentenced to hard labor. My fave part of the story so far is Robert Gibbs (White House Spokesman) saying this is a “solely private mission.” Um. Ok.

You think Washington-speak is Sanskrit? Try diplo-speak. This is how the game plays out. North Korea wants two things a) admission of guilt by the two women. You’ve pretty much seen that along with some mumblings about how everybody is very sorry about the situation from Secretary of State Clinton (not to be confused with mission-head Bill Clinton). You think she talked to him about his “solely private mission”? Me too.

And b) North Korea wants some respect. The two countries don’t have diplomatic relations, and the Obama administration is in no mood anyway. In his first several months in office, the President’s outstretched hand was greeted by two, three or eight –who’s counting—missile launches from North Korea. Provocative, but lame.

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