Though President Barack Obama says he probably won’t read Sarah Palin’s book, some of his allies are obviously paying attention: Today I received a mass email from Mitch Stewart of Organizing for America, the former campaign website for President Obama. The subject line: “Sarah Palin.”

These regular emails used to raise money for Obama’s presidential campaign. Now they raise money for Obama’s presidential agenda and the Democratic National Committee, though it’s not always clear from the emails how they plan to use the funds they solicit. Today’s email noted that Palin is on a book tour, and Stewart rendered this conclusion: “It’s dangerous.”

The email said Palin’s warnings about “death panels” in health care legislation “opened the floodgates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists.” What to do? Stewart offers this solution: Raise $500,000 in the next week to “help push back against Sarah Palin and her allies.” The email doesn’t specify what that means, but asks every email recipient to chip in $5.

Also of note: Stewart says Palin told Rush Limbaugh that Americans could “face jail time as punishment” if they don’t buy insurance, a claim Stewart calls outrageous and false. WORLD’s Washington Bureau chief Lee Pitts files a report this week explaining how it’s true.

Obama’s approval rating has dropped below 50 percent for the first time in his presidency, Gallup reports today. Gallup notes that Obama began July with 60 percent approval rating, but that the protracted health care debate and bad economic news have brought that approval rating down to 49 percent.

Giving some historical context, Gallup notes that of the post-World-War-II presidents, Obama is the fourth fastest to drop below the majority level. However, all the presidents eventually bounced back to above 50 percent and most recovered in time to be re-elected. Gallup concludes,

Thus, Obama’s descent below 50% is an important symbolic milestone in his presidency, but history suggests the odds of his regaining majority approval are high, and he could do so relatively soon, particularly since the individual nightly numbers for him in recent days have been right around the 50% mark. History would suggest his current loss of majority approval bears little relation to his chances of being elected to a second term in 2012.

WORLD’s Washington Bureau chief Edward Lee Pitts is closely following healthcare reform activity on Capitol Hill, and this afternoon he reports the latest on Harry Reid’s Senate version of the bill, including how it treats abortion:

The Senate bill also does not include strict limitations on taxpayer-funded abortions. It rejects language in the House healthcare bill that pro-life Democrats secured after successfully pressuring House leaders.

Rather than containing tight exclusions against federally funded abortions, the Senate version adopts an approach that could lead to the inclusion of abortion coverage in the bill’s public option. It mandates the inclusion of at least one plan with elective abortion coverage in each state’s health insurance exchange.

While wrapped in legal language, the intent of the eight pages in the bill devoted to abortion can be discerned by the way pro-abortion advocates have praised it while pro-life groups have attacked it.

“Reid has sought to please the militant minority that demands funding of abortion through federal programs, even though substantial majorities of Americans believe that abortion should be excluded from government-funded and government-sponsored health programs,” said Douglas Johnson with the National Right to Life Committee.

At Thursday’s rally, Reid said the bill’s abortion provisions are “in keeping with what the traditions have been in our country for more than 30 years.”

But his bill also empowers the Health and Human Services secretary to perform periodic updates of a qualified plan’s essential benefits. Such a review could lead to a major change: the eventual inclusion of abortion as an essential benefit.

Read Lee’s report in its entirety here.

UPDATED: Doug Hoffman un-conceded the NY-23 race after a vote count showed him only 3,026 votes behind Owens (see original post from Nov. 12 below). Now, he has posted a message alleging that the election was stolen by ACORN and unions:

Recent developments leave me to wonder who is scheming behind closed doors, twisting arms and stealing elections from the voters of NY-23.

Politico reports that Hoffman has  “next-to-no chance of pulling ahead,” with half of the absentee ballots counted and only a 344 Hoffman vote gain.

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A recanvassing of the vote in New York’s 23 Congressional District shows that everyone may have called the race too soon. Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate backed by many conservatives after they discovered the more liberal views of Republican Dede Scozzafava, conceded to Bill Owens on Election Day, believing that he was 5,335 votes down. Owens was quickly sworn in so that he could cast his vote for healthcare reform. But now recanvassing shows that Hoffman is only 3,026 votes behind Owens, the Syracuse Post-Standard reports. John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections, says that means the race will be decided by absentee ballots.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will release today his version of healthcare reform. This is the latest in a long line of Democratic healthcare overhaul measures that have dominated Congress this year. Three House committees and two Senate committees passed their healthcare proposals before the full House approved their measure earlier this month.

Reid’s long-awaited version is expected to receive a test vote as early as this week.  Reid is unveiling his proposal after waiting on cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. Previous healthcare bills came out before the cost estimates and where soon criticized for their high price tags. This time Senate Democrats have scheduled a 5 p.m. EST closed-door briefing on the bill where the CBO will also provide cost estimates.

Reid needs 60 voted in the Senate during a procedural vote to move forward with the bill. That leaves little wiggle room as Democrats hold exactly 60 seats in the Senate. Some Democrats oppose the government-run insurance option while others are concerned that the measure may allow for the federal funding of abortion.

If the Senate ultimately passes its bill, then lawmakers will have to work out the differences between the Senate version and the already-passed House version of healthcare.

Today West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd becomes the longest-serving member of Congress. He served in the House of Representatives from 1953-1959 and his current run the Senate began in 1959. This leads to a grand total of 56 years, 10 months, and 16 days. He broke the record previously set by Carl Hayden, the Democrat from Arizona who served in Congress from 1912 to 1969. That means Byrd and Hayden shared the halls of Capitol Hill for 16 years. Byrd, who turns 92 on Friday, has missed numerous votes this year due to bad health. But that has not kept him from casting more than 18,000 votes. Byrd is known in Congress for keeping a pocket-sized version of the Constitution and for his long, heart-felt floor speeches around the holidays. Byrd’s take on his record:

“I have strived to provide the people of West Virginia the best representation possible each of the 20,774 days which I have served in the Congress of the United States. The only way for me to close on this historic day is to say that I look forward to serving you for the next 56 years and 320 days!”

Just for your enjoyment, here’s a list of the 14 new committees, commissions, and advisory boards that the House healthcare bill creates.

• Health Benefits Advisory Committee
• Telehealth Advisory Committee
• Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission
• Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment
• Clinical Prevention Stakeholders Board
• Community Prevention Stakeholders Board
• Council for Emergency Care
• Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee
• Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women’s Health
• Personal Care Attendant Workforce Advisory Panel
• Intergovernmental Task Force on Indian environmental and nuclear hazards
• Indian Health facilities appropriation advisory board
• Indian Health facilities needs assessment workgroup
• Committee for the Establishment of the Native American Health and Wellness Foundation

Over at SarahPAC you can pay $100 for a signed copy of Going Rogue: An American Life or you can pay $14.50, half the retail price, at Amazon. Demand for the Palin memoir is so strong, reports the Wall Street Journal, that on the day of its official release HarperCollins Publishers is going back to press for an additional 100,000 run. That brings the total number  in print to 1.6 million copies. And

a spokeswoman for Amazon.com Inc.’s Web site noted in an email that the title “is already one of our bestselling nonfiction books of 2009.” At 2:40 p.m., the book ranked No. 1 on Amazon’s list of best sellers.

Politico reported yesterday that the Republican National Committee’s insurance policy with Cigna covers elective abortions. Once the news broke, the RNC quickly took action to change its policy.

According to several Cigna employees, the insurer offers its customers the opportunity to opt out of abortion coverage – and the RNC did not choose to opt out.

Republicans have spoken forcefully against Democrats’ healthcare reform that included abortion coverage . The Stupak amendment limited that coverage.

A Gallup poll finds that for a generic Congressional ballot in the 2010 elections, more registered voters (48 percent) would vote Republican than Democrat (44 percent). Republicans lagged by six points in July and narrowed the gap to two points last month.

Gallup finds that the GOP advantage is due to GOP-leaning independent voters. In July, Republicans had a 1-point advantage among independent voters, but now 52 percent of independent voters would vote Republican over Democrat (30 percent).

Gallup says GOP success in 2010 will depend on voter turnout:

The overall results would predict a likely strong Republican showing if the House elections were held today. … Given that Republicans usually have a turnout advantage, if normal turnout patterns prevail in the coming election, prospects for a good Democratic showing appear slim. Of course, the elections are still nearly 12 months away and conditions could shift back in the Democrats’ favor over this time.