State of the Union early bird

(CNN) - It's early, and State of the Union is bringing you the best of the Sunday headlines to go with your morning coffee.

Some of the items on our radar this morning: The midterm elections, organizing against the Tea Party, and reaction to the GOP's "Pledge to America."

Check out what we're reading today and watch the show today at 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. ET.

2010 MIDTERMS

New York Times: Democrats Unleash Ads Focusing on Rivals Pasts
As they struggle to break through with economic messages, many Democrats are deploying the fruits of a yearlong investigation into the business and personal histories of Republican candidates in an effort to plant doubts about them and avoid having races become a national referendum on the performance of President Obama and his party.

Washington Post: Can women save the Democrats?
Four years ago, on the eve of the 2006 midterms, men were evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats in their voting intentions for the House, while women were Democratic by 22 percentage points. Today, Newport said, 52 percent of men say they plan to vote Republican and 40 percent say they will vote for the Democrat. Women are the opposite: 52 percent Democrat and 40 percent Republican.

GOP

New York Times: Rove Returns, With Team, Planning G.O.P. Offensive

Los Angeles Times: Tired of 'tea party' sniping, moderates organize
"Middle America is being ignored by Washington and the media. Centrists are desperate for a voice today; they feel entirely unrepresented," said Mark McKinnon, a political strategist and former advisor to President George W. Bush. "The tea party has tapped into voter frustration and anger," he said, "but does not represent millions of Americans in the vast middle."

Politico: Tea party cool to GOP pledge
"It's a mealy-mouthed sop to the tea party movement that is rife with platitudes and little on substance," e-mailed Andrew Ian Dodge, the Maine state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots national coalition of local groups. "I have yet to see one person who is wholly impressed with it."

Judson Phillips, founder of the tea party Nation online social network, called it "a nice PR piece, but I don't think it is even showing up on our radar." Most tea partiers, he said, "are skeptical."

ECONOMY
New York Times: Job Loss Looms as Part of Stimulus Act Expires
Tens of thousands of people will lose their jobs within weeks unless Congress extends one of the more effective job-creating programs in the $787 billion stimulus act: a $1 billion New Deal-style program that directly paid the salaries of unemployed people so they could get jobs in government, at nonprofit organizations and at many small businesses.

Newsweek: Where the Jobs Are
A new report by London-based Capital Economics says that supply problems-the workers who need jobs are in the wrong states, and the wrong fields-could be responsible for nearly a third of America's unemployment rate.

McClatchy: Stimulus spending on highways isn't delivering on job promises

AFGHANISTAN

Washington Post: IEDs killing fewer troops in Afghanistan
A 30 percent rise in the planting of improvised explosive devices by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan this year has resulted in more wounded American and coalition troops, according to newly compiled Pentagon statistics. But fewer of them are dying from the attacks.

NATIONAL SECURITY/MIDDLE EAST

CNN: Obama administration seeks to dismiss al-Awlaki lawsuit

CNN: Israeli settlement freeze set to expire

BBC: Barak says West Bank settlement deal has '50-50' chance