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In his Crib Sheet, CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and ahead to the topics that will be making news this week.

A feisty Sunday back and forth over what should come next in Afghanistan offered the White House a clear preview of the battle lines as President Obama prepared to ask Congress – and the American people – to support a significant escalation of the U.S. military presence there.

Democrats said one critical test was showing how more troops now would ultimately mean a credible plan to bring most troops home. Or, as Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island put it: “He has to make a speech that shows all of our efforts are pointed to a reduced presence in Afghanistan.”

But Republicans ready to support sending upwards of 30,000 more troops warned Mr. Obama would look weak if he emphasized an exit strategy over defeating the Al Qaeda and Taliban enemy. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona sounded that note: “All this talk about an exit strategy is really dangerous. It tells the Taliban to lay low until we leave.”

Sound familiar?

It was at times eerie as some of the debate tracked previous political arguments about the Iraq surge, or whether a firm timetable was necessary to make clear when the war would end.

Paying for the escalation was another flashpoint, with one Republican going as far as saying the White House should set the health care debate aside until next year, and focus in the meantime on paying for overseas military deployments and creating jobs here at home.

No thanks, was the Democratic response.

A scene setter there, now let’s get to the Sound of Sunday.

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Seattle, Washington (CNN) – The dinner crowd trickles in slowly at first, some taking time to play a little pool in a recreation area, others just wait patiently in line, or find a spot to sit and strike up a conversation.

On the street, Orion Center has a reputation for its pleasant and welcoming staff, and, as Kayla Wyatt puts it, a place to get a good "feed." And of late, there are many new faces among the familiar.

At a restaurant, that's a sign of progress. At a support organization for the young homeless - like Orion Center - it is a troubling sign of the times.

More troubling is to take an up-close look at Seattle's streets and parks after Orion Center shuts down for the day, especially as temperatures drop and the combination of rain and gusty winds makes for bone-chilling conditions.

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In his Crib Sheet, CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and ahead to the topics that will be making news this week.

The debate that divided the Senate along sharply partisan lines Saturday night carried over into a crackling Sunday conversation about health care policy and politics.

“Yes,” was freshman Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet’s short answer when asked if, at the end of the Senate debate, he would vote in favor of comprehensive health care reform even if he had compelling evidence that such a vote would cost him his seat in next year’s midterm elections.

That was one of the many glimpses at the raw politics of health care reform. The tough policy divides are many too, and with all the partisan barbs back and forth also came some informative exchanges about the pros and cons of the bills as they now stand, and a number of ideas about how senators of both parties believe their chamber’s version can be improved. We’ll touch on a few here, but also suggest following the links to the Sunday transcripts to get a more comprehensive look.

After health care, some sound of note on Afghanistan – both the president’s pending decision on sending more troops and new proposals from some congressional Democrats to impose a new “war tax” to pay for military operations overseas.

First, though, health care gets the bulk of our Sound of Sunday showcase:

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Walker's daughter, wife, Demetria, and cousin, Andrew, keep the restaurant running, and in this bad economy, times are tough. Health care coverage is out of the question.

"It's too expensive right now," Walker said. "We are having trouble keeping our head above water. ... We had it at one time, but it was so expensive that we finally dropped it."

With a smile, Walker continues: "I get lots of grief from my wife about it - that we don't have health care."

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In his Crib Sheet, CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and ahead to the topics that will be making news this week.

Anti-terror policy and politics dominated the Sunday conversation, with a crackling back and forth over whether the Obama administration made the right call in deciding to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged 9-11 conspirators on trial in a federal courthouse within walking distance of Ground Zero.

“We’re very confident about these cases, and we believe this is the appropriate thing to do,” top presidential adviser David Axelrod told us from Singapore, one of the stops on President Obama’s eight-day trip to Asia.

“I don’t know why you want to give terrorists’ advantages,” was the retort of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The Afghan troop deliberations and the endangered deadline to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility were other major subplots in the feisty terror strategy divide.

Axelrod also weighed in on the question of how health care reform deals with abortion, making clear the White House would prefer language less restrictive than an amendment added to the House legislation.

“There are discussions, ongoing, as to how to adjust it accordingly,” Axelrod said.

Another frequent Sunday topic was “Going Rogue,” the Sarah Palin memoir due in bookstores Tuesday. The divide on this one was fairly predictable, and we looked not only at how it is playing in Washington but also back in Palin’s hometown of Wasilla.

Highlights of the Sound of Sunday, beginning with the debate over terror trials:
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Palin's book 'Going Rogue' releases on Tuesday.

Wasilla, Alaska (CNN) – At Pandemonium Booksellers, the Sarah Palin 2010 calendars are hot sellers, and since the election, the traffic in political books has been decidedly to the right.

"Glenn Beck outsells President Obama at the moment?" is our question as owner Shannon Cullip leads us on a tour of the bookstore.

"Oh yeah," she responds with a laugh. "Big time."

In the window, there is a small Wasilla Chamber of Commerce sticker and an image of the town's famous mayor-turned-governor-turned-GOP vice presidential nominee.

"Going Rogue" is shattering the presale record at Pandemonium Booksellers and reigniting the Palin political divide, even here in her hometown.

"It's either one extreme or the other, I would say," Cullip says of the bookstore's Palin conversations. "I would say people either completely, completely have her on a pedestal or don't like her. Not too much in the middle.

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"I broke the top of my femur, so with the plate and screws, now I'm actually, two months later, able to walk - do some walking on my own," Ballard told us. "Physical therapy is coming along very well."

Once the hip is back to full strength, Ballard will need knee surgery to repair ligament damage, but he shrugs and voices encouragement at his progress and smiles a confident smile when asked about his ultimate goal.

"Get back and fight," Ballard said without hesitation. "Return to duty."

Veterans Day traditionally has been set aside more to honor those who have served rather than those still serving. But eight-plus years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq have created a huge class of combat veterans who still wear the uniform, many of them with two or three or more deployments under their belts and perhaps more in their futures.

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In his Crib Sheet, CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and ahead to the topics that will be making news this week.

The dramatic late Saturday House vote in favor of sweeping health care changes was a major topic of the Sunday conversation, with the debate breaking down this way:

*Democrats saw the victory, as narrow as it was, as a major step forward and a momentum boost they say dramatically increases the odds of getting legislation to President Obama this year.

*Republicans took the 220-215 margin – and the 39 Democrats who voted “No” – as proof of jitters in the Democratic ranks, and proof that they will end up on the winning side of politics of health care.

Other major Sunday attention grabbers:

*Gen. George Casey, the Army Chief of Staff, chose his words carefully when discussing the tragic massacre at Fort Hood. But he was emphatic in his appeal that Muslims serving in the Army and other military services should not face suspicion or discrimination because of the actions of Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan.

*Mikhail Gorbachev joined us for “The Last Word” to discuss the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and we took the opportunity to ask his view of President Obama as a world leader, and his advice as Mr. Obama ponders sending more troops to Afghanistan.

Straight now to the Sound of Sunday, beginning with health care:
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In his Crib Sheet, CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and ahead to the topics that will be making news this week.

The state of the economy and of our politics dominated the Sunday conversation. To sum up the administration’s message in a sentence: We have hit the bottom, but it is choppy.

There was also a Republican promise to have a detailed health care proposal – complete with a scoring from the Congressional Budget Office – by the end of this week.

And a lot of talk about whether the conservative-Republican divide in a special New York congressional election is a healthy struggle, or a sign of festering internal tensions that will carry over and hurt the GOP’s chances in next year’s midterm elections.

A lot to digest, so let’s get right to the best Sound of Sunday:
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Princeton, New Jersey (CNN) - Chris Daggett is a political novice yet has the routine down pat: Approach a morning commuter, extend his hand and a good-morning greeting, and pick a question from his repertoire:

"Are you a voter?"

"Are you happy with Jon Corzine?"

The shaking head is a preview of the answer: "I'm not happy with anybody."

Pay dirt.

The man tells Daggett he has a doctorate in education; Daggett talks about his promise to invest more in higher education if elected governor.

"Thanks - hope you'll consider voting for me," Daggett says.

All standard fare, until Daggett hands the man some campaign literature. Stapled to the back: a guide to the different places Daggett's name can be found on the ballot in each of New Jersey's 21 counties.

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In his Crib Sheet, CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and ahead to the topics that will be making news this week.

Affordability and accessibility are the buzzwords you hear most often from those pushing health care policy changes. But when it comes to the math of health care politics – a big topic of the Sunday conversation – the debate at the moment centers on “opt out,” “opt in” and “trigger.”

“Opt out,” is the current favorite in the Senate Democratic leadership on the issue of whether health care legislation should include a government option to compete with private insurers. Under this approach, the legislation would create such a government insurance plan, and states that did not want that could “opt out.”

“I think we’re getting very close to getting the 60 votes we need to move forward,” was Sen. Chuck Schumer’s optimistic assessment for a draft proposal that includes the “opt out” approach.

But it is hard to see Democrats getting to 60 without the vote of Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and he made clear Sunday he is OK with states choosing to create a public option of their own – the “opt in” approach – but “certainly am not excited about a public option where states could opt out.”

And talk of a trigger this Sunday mostly triggered liberal Democratic complaints that that approach – favored by the one Republican to back the Senate Finance Committee health care bill – would amount to a gift to insurance companies. “They need competition,” was how Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio put it. “The trigger simply doesn’t work.”

Afghanistan was another Sunday flashpoint, framed around a sober assessment from the challenger in the Afghan presidential runoff. Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister now challenging incumbent Hamid Karzai.
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This week is key for Wall Street, with highly anticipated third-quarter earnings of major companies due.

(CNN) - A diverse collection of earnings and government reports will again put the economy at center stage this week, as investors wonder whether the Dow will remain comfortably above the 10,000 mark.

Consider the mix of companies due to add to the debate about whether a recovery is taking root: Apple, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Pfizer, United Health, Yahoo!, AT&T, Delta Air Lines and Merck.

And from the government: the Labor Department's Producer Price Index (inflation), the Commerce Department's new housing starts report and the Fed's Beige Book - its summary of economic conditions region by region.

The markets will be in the news in other ways, as well.

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In his Crib Sheet, CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and ahead to the topics that will be making news this week.

There were two clear messages from the Obama White House this Sunday regarding Afghanistan:

*To Afghan President Hamid Karzai: schedule a runoff election or broker a power sharing deal with his chief election rival.

*To those waiting to know whether Mr. Obama will add thousands more U.S. troops to the Afghan mission: be patient, because the commander-in-chief wants a better sense of the Afghan political climate before he announces his big military decision.

“It would be reckless to make a decision on U.S. troop levels if, in fact, you haven’t had a thorough analysis of whether, in fact, there’s an Afghan partner,” the White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel told us.

Privately, two senior U.S. officials involved in the issue told us they would prefer that Mr. Karzai move immediately to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with his lead challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. Both officials predicted that would be the ultimate resolution, but both also said they worried Mr. Karzai would drag his feet and resist, for now, efforts aimed at a quick resolution.

Health care was also a major topic in the Sunday conversation. We didn’t hear any dramatic shifts, but it was interesting to watch the White House team navigate the delicate internal Democratic politics.

Also interesting: Senator Arlen Specter’s scathing take on the Republican Party. Yes, the same Republican Party he left just a few months ago.

We Watch the Other Sunday Shows So You Don’t Have To.
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In his Crib Sheet, CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and ahead to the topics that will be making news this week.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The war in Afghanistan dominated the Sunday conversation, and the spirited debate reflected the stakes of the choice President Obama will make in the coming weeks.

“An error of historic proportions,” was Arizona Senator John McCain’s take on the consequences should the commander in chief refuse to send at least 40,000 more troops. “What the hell are we doing there,” was the retort from anti-war Democratic Rep. James McGovern.

Significant, at least to us, was California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein’s characterization of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as “crackerjack.” It wasn’t too long ago, on “State of the Union,” she mentioned the need for an Afghanistan timetable; but Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” she said “I don’t know how” Mr. Obama could reject his commanding general’s recommendations.

Also significant was how a Saturday night speech by the president added gay rights – and specifically same-sex marriage and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” – to the Sunday agenda. One instant lesson: Getting a “yes or no” answer on whether a senator would vote to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act isn’t necessarily easy!

Because at CNN "we watch the other Sunday shows so you don’t have to," let’s get this week's “Sound of Sunday, beginning with the divide over Afghanistan:

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CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and what will be making news this week.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Afghanistan dominated the Sunday conversation, and two things jumped out as we listened to James Jones, the retired Marine Corps general who serves as President Obama’s national security adviser:

*A characterization of the security situation in Afghanistan that seemed, to us anyway, more optimistic than the assessment the commanding general of U.S. forces made in his report to the White House requesting more troops.

*And a statement that made pointedly clear that the White House, or General Jones, at least, is less than thrilled that Gen. Stanley McChrystal is lobbying publicly for more troops at a time the administration wants time to consider its overall Afghanistan strategy.

Consider Gen. Jones in his own words:

National Security Advisor, General Jim Jones, on CNN’s “State of the Union”
“Ideally, it's better for military advice to come up through the chain of command and I think that general McChrystal and the others in the chain of command will present the president with not just one option, which does, in fact, tend to have a, you know, enforcing function, but a range of options that the president can consider.”
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Farmers like Bob Topel have relied on co-ops for years to buy feed, seed, fuel and fertilizer.

Editor's note: On CNN's "State of the Union," host and Chief National Correspondent John King goes outside the Beltway to report on the issues affecting communities across the country.

WATERLOO, Wisconsin (CNN) - On a dairy farm that Bob Topel likes to describe as "25 miles from anywhere," the term co-op is old hat.

"Co-ops have been around for well over 100 years in agriculture," Topel said while milking, feeding and other chores on his 660-acre farm.

"Here on our farm we buy everything - from seed, fuel, fertilizer, feed - everything we buy is pretty much through a cooperative." He sells his milk through a local cooperative, too.

And, for the past 10 months, Topel and his wife also get their health care through a cooperative, one he holds out as a model as Congress and the White House debate health care reform and specifically whether a robust, government-run health care option is necessary to provide competition with private insurers.

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Gov. Deval Patrick is expected to announce the date of the special election to replace Ted Kennedy's seat.

(CNN) - Two Massachusetts political sources say the Joint Elections Committee in the state legislature plans to hear a Senate succession
bill in just a week and a half.

The decision to consider the measure on September 9, just after lawmakers return from break, highlights the growing momentum to pass a change allowing the appointment of an interim senator to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat until a special election can be held to replace him.

Monday afternoon, Gov. Deval Patrick announced a new vote to fill the seat would take place on January 19.

One source close to the Kennedy family said former Rep. Joe Kennedy, whose name has been mentioned as a possible replacement for his uncle, is not eager for the job.

"Joe is reluctant," said the source. "The question is, does the pressure rise to a point where he feels he has to do it? Things here are too new to be able to answer that."

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Crowds lined the street as the motorcade carrying the body of Sen. Ted Kennedy passed by.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) - As the funeral service for Sen. Ted Kennedy begins, people are lining the streets around Boston's Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica.

The local bars and restaurants are also packed with people watching the live coverage on televisions inside.

The crowd is flowing out the door at "Flann's", a corner pub on Tremont Street about three blocks from the church, just outside the security perimeter.

(CNN) – A close family associate confirms to CNN the storied Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port could be given into a non-profit organization to be made into a museum/educational center project.

The associate said the plans are not final but that the senator for some time had talked to family members and close associates about how to preserve the compound and its history. The discussions involve a possible museum to highlight the history of the place so central to the Kennedy family and other facilities, under the auspices of a non profit.

(CNN) - Three sources close to the Kennedy family say Sen. Ted Kennedy will lie in repose at the John F. Kennedy presidential library in Boston.

A procession Friday will travel from the library to the Mission Church in Boston, where a funeral mass will be held. Kennedy will be buried Saturday at Arlington National Cemetery, also the final resting place of his brothers John and Robert Kennedy.