Tomorrow will bring three off-year elections that have garnered national attention: New Jersey and Virginia will elect governors, and a special election – which grew more special over the weekend as the Republican candidate suspended her campaign and endorsed her Democratic opponent – is scheduled for New York's 23rd Congressional District. For more on the New York race we turn to Brian Mann, reporter for North Country Public Radio. WNYC reporter Bob Hennelly has been covering the New Jersey governor's race. And Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney is watching the Virginia governor's race.
Marcus Mabry, international business editor for The New York Times, and Adam Mynott, from the BBC, join us to take a look at the consequences of Abdullah Abdullah pulling out of the just-cancelled run-off elections in Afghanistan. Also on the agenda: the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis, and October's employment numbers, due out later this week from the Labor Department.
Former President Bill Clinton was in Kosovo this weekend to unveil a 3-meter statue – of himself. The statue commemorates Clinton's support of the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999.The Takeaway speaks with Arber Vllahiu, a freelance reporter who was at the commemoration in Kosovo.
Later today, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, along with the CDC and other experts, will hold a briefing to update the nation on the H1N1 virus. In anticipation of the update, we speak with Dr. Peter Hotez, who chairs the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at George Washington University.
Everyone knows that it's better for families if dads are involved in the parenting process, but some researchers say moms might be making it harder for them to get involved and stay involved. We're joined by Takeaway contributor Lisa Belkin, who writes The New York Times family and parenting blog Motherlode, and psychologists Marsha Pruett and Kyle Pruett. They say recent research shows that women could be more supportive of how their husbands act as parents.
“When I had my first children, thirty-plus years ago, I had to get a signed permission from the chair of obstetrics and gynecology to be in the room where my child was born: [the same room] where I as an intern had been delivering babies six weeks ahead of that time.”
—Psychologist Kyle Pruett on his initial difficulty creating his role as a father
Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah announced yesterday that he would not participate in a runoff against incumbent president Hamid Karzai, originally scheduled to take place six days from now. This morning, Afghanistan's election commission officially cancelled the election entirely.
This morning we're comparing two conflicts involving electoral politics and counterinsurgency strategies from today and over 40 years ago: Afghanistan and Vietnam. We talk with Gordon Goldstein, author of "Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam," and Fotini Christia, Afghanistan analyst and professor of Political Science at MIT.
We speak with Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) about health care reform, how his proposal to provide "counseling for patients about end-of-life care" became the much-ballyhooed "death panels" meme, the prospect of a second stimulus package and the power of bicycles. (click through for the full interview transcript.)
Watch a video from StreetFilms of Congressman Blumenauer talking about bicycle-friendly Portland.
Ford announced this morning that it made nearly $1 billion in the third quarter, making it Ford's first quarter in the black in North America since 2005. Ford now says it now expects to be "solidly profitable" by 2011. For more, we talk with The New York Times' automotive reporter, Nick Bunkley.
"Question 1" on Tuesday's ballots in Maine, much like last year's "Proposition 8" in California, would explicitly revoke recently granted marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples in Maine if it passes. The initiative asks:
"Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"
Abby Goodnough, from The New York Times, gives us an overview of the initiative and its national significance. We're also joined by Shenna Bellows, from Maine's ACLU; and Brian Souchet, from the anti-gay-marriage group Stand for Marriage Maine.
Hamid Karzai was officially declared the president of Afghanistan by election officials this morning, after they scrapped a planned runoff vote scheduled for this Saturday. For the latest from the ground, we talk with the BBC's Andrew North, who is in Kabul following the latest news.
We're following the news about Ford having made nearly $1 billion in its third quarter: the first profitable quarter from North American sales since the first quarter of 2005. Ford now says it now expects to be "solidly profitable" by 2011. Joining us is Paul Eisenstein, publisher of The Detroit Bureau, an online magazine covering the American auto industry.
Today's Takeaway: Dharun Ravi, NATO Summit, David McCullough, Chen Guangcheng and Unemployment for Older Americans
Why Texting in Class Might Actually Be a Good Thing
Lunch with Chef Seamus Mullen
NATO and Occupy Protests Rock Chicago
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