Mara Liasson is the national political correspondent for NPR. Her reports can be heard regularly on NPR's award-winning newsmagazines All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Liasson provides extensive coverage of politics and policy from Washington, D.C. — focusing on the White House and Congress — and also reports on political trends beyond the Beltway.
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Republicans are suggesting that the new guidelines for breast cancer screening reinforce their nightmare scenario about health care rationing under President Obama's proposed overhaul. The political brouhaha comes as the Senate is about to take up its health care overhaul bill.
Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential candidate, is now a best-selling author. Palin's book, Going Rogue, made the best-seller list before it was released. She's planning a book tour that will only stoke her meteoric political celebrity. But to what end?
The president wears many hats — policy chief, political leader, statesman to the world. On Tuesday, at Fort Hood, Texas, President Obama wore the hat of the mourner in chief. His speech followed a long list of presidential addresses at moments of great national pain.
Historically the party that holds the White House almost always loses seats in its first midterm election. When one party holds the White House, the House and the Senate, the losses tend to be bigger. If the economy doesn't turn around, it will be a very difficult election year for Democrats.
The midyear election is historically a bad one for first-term presidents. This year, there's no argument that the Democrats got a slap in the face, and the Republicans got a much-needed victory. But what does this tell us about President Obama's likely effect in 2010?
The two states helped to lead Democrats back to national power last year. In Tuesday's elections, voters in Virginia and New Jersey decided to back the Republican candidates for governor. There were also contests for big-city mayors; and a tumultuous congressional race in upstate New York, where the Democrat beat the conservative party candidate.
The Republican won the governor's race, despite major gains made by Democrats in the state in 2006 and 2008. In the New Jersey governor's race, which was too close to call, Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine faced a tough fight. A special election for a congressional seat in New York was also too close to call.
President Obama's political influence is being tested Tuesday as voters cast ballots in Virginia and New Jersey. Obama has worked hard to keep the states Democratic. Congressional and mayoral races are among the featured face-offs on Election Day.
Now that Afghanistan's presidential election has been decided, pressure is intensifying for President Obama to settle on a strategy for the war, and to announce whether more U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan. A White House spokesman said a decision by Obama on troop levels is still weeks away.
Voters in New Jersey, New York, Virginia and other states go to vote Tuesday in elections that are being labeled a referendum on President Obama's policies. The governor's race in New Jersey is close. In Virginia, polls show the GOP candidate leading by a large margin.
Tuesday is Election Day. Among the most-watched races are gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as a pair of special congressional elections. The off-year elections are being watched by national politicians as a referendum on President Obama and his party.
Democrats have held the governorship for the past eight years, but Republicans think they can recapture it by focusing on transportation and education issues. For the first time since 1964, Virginia went Democratic in last year's presidential election. But only half of the Virginians who backed Obama said they are certain to vote next month.
New Jersey voters haven't elected a Republican to statewide office since 1997. But this year, the state's unpopular Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine is struggling to hang on to his job against Republican opponent Chris Christie and independent Chris Daggett in the run-up to the November election. And the attack ads are getting personal.
President Obama meets Wednesday with his national security team to talk about the war in Afghanistan, after meeting Tuesday with Congressional leaders. He has said he won't cut U.S. troop levels and is considering whether to raise them. Once he makes decisions on strategy and resources for the war, he'll have to go out and sell them. But it'll be a tough sell, even among his own party.
President Obama met Tuesday with Republicans and Democrats in Congress to discuss Afghanistan. The meeting comes as Obama debates whether to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, as called for by his top commander in the country, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
