Next week, President Barack Obama will deliver his annual State of the Union address. We can expect to hear him lay out his roadmap for the next two years. Leading up to his address, we’re talking with some key political observers about the direction in which the president should and must move in his remaining time in office.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal meets with President Obama today, as the fallout from a Rolling Stone article remains front and center in Washington. In his article, journalist Michael Hastings (who was on The Takeaway yesterday) quotes the general and his aides making disparaging remarks about various administration officials, including Vice President Biden and the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

Shortly before noon today, General Stanley McChrystal will face President Obama in the White House over derisive comments made by him and his aides in a Rolling Stone profile. Rumor in the beltway this morning says the U.S.'s top commander in Afghanistan is prepared to tender his resignation. McChrystal's insubordination is hardly the first case of tension between him and the president. According to Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter, there is a history of personal conflict between these two that dates back to at least last fall. That story and this morning's headlines.

Barack Obama decided on the night he won the presidency to make comprehensive health care legislation his first priority. Not all of his aides agreed. "I begged him not to do this," his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, later told Jonathan Alter for his book, "The Promise: President Obama, Year One."

It’s the first Tuesday in November, and voters in New Jersey, Virginia and cities across the country are headed to the polls. As the voting gets underway, we take a look back to this Tuesday one year ago, when Americans went to the polls and elected Barack Obama president.

Newsweek's Jonathan Alter offers his assessment of Obama's policy achievements and missteps since; and Takeaway contributor Patrik Henry Bass gives his take on how one year has changed things, as candidate-Obama became President-elect Obama.

Today President Obama kicks off his Southern California tour. Using an old fashioned medium, he’ll be hearing from beleaguered Americans at a town hall meeting. Tomorrow night he’ll talk to the nation by way of Jay Leno. In a time of crisis is President Obama effectively modernizing FDR’s fireside chats? To assess if Obama is learning from FDR's example we’re joined by Jonathan Alter. He’s the senior editor at Newsweek and author of The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope.