President Obama stood before reporters yesterday and addressed the big losses his party suffered in the midterm elections — including the turnover of the House of Representatives to Republicans. Obama accepted blame for not fullfiling voters' needs on the economy. How will the President's agenda now change? And with Republicans in control of Congress, what will their own agenda be? We'll look towards the future of Congress and the president with Peter Baker, chief political correspondent for The New York Times.

Washington is atwitter (and Twittering) this morning over a new book by Bob Woodward. In "Obama's War," the forthcoming book by the veteran Washington Post reporter, high ranking administration officials dish about the bitter divide between the president's national security team over strategy in the war in Afghanistan. 

Almost as quickly as the story broke that a large ring of Russian sleeper agents was operating in the U.S., officials from the two countries seemed to scramble for a face-saving solution. The agreement: trade the 10 Russian agents arrested in late June for four men currently imprisoned in Russia for alleged contracts with Western intelligence agencies. What does this swap signify in Russian — U.S. relations?

A week after allegations that the White House offered Rep. Joe Sestak a job to dissuade him from challenging Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, the Obama administration has confirmed that it also offered a position to another incumbent challenger, Andrew Romanoff of Colorado. Romanoff, the former speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet in a primary race for Senate, said Wednesday that he was suggested a position in the administration in order to get him to drop out of the primary. 

After the failed attempt to explode a bomb on an American plane on Christmas Day, how and when President Obama responded became the focus in the avalanche of media coverage that followed. 

In a front page article published in Sunday's New York Times, Peter Baker details how President Obama came to decide on the new Afghanistan war strategy he delivered to cadets at West Point last week. Baker's article describes a patient, methodical and oftentimes frustrating process which, over the course of three months, led to a policy that may define Obama's presidency.  

Six staff members of the United Nations were killed and another nine wounded in an armed attack on a central Kabul guesthouse this morning. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was the first step in a campaign to prevent the upcoming runoff in the nation's presidential election. This attack comes hard on the heels of yesterday's attacks that killed eight American troops in multiple bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan. The deaths make October the deadliest month for American troops there since the war began in 2001. We speak to BBC correspondent David Loyn, the author of "In Afghanistan: Two Hundred Years of British, Russian and American Occupation," about the state of the international effort in Afghanistan. We're also joined by New York Times White House correspondent Peter Baker, with an update on the president's decision on whether or not to send additional troops to the embattled nation.

It’s official: summer vacation is over and Congress is back in session, preparing to pick up where they left off. This week, President Obama will attempt to take back control of the health care debate in a prime-time speech Wednesday night.

Joining us for a round table discussion on what awaits the President this week – from health care to Afghanistan to the overall happiness of the nation – is Peter Baker, White House correspondent for The New York Times; Jay Newton-Small, Washington reporter for Time Magazine; and Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports.

We're joined by Peter Baker, White House correspondent for The New York Times, to talk about similarities between the continued war in Afghanistan and other ill-defined conflicts in America's past. He outlines this in his article for The New York Times, "Could Afghanistan Become Obama's Vietnam?" 

 

Peter Baker, the White House correspondent for The New York Times, is a long-time Clinton watcher. Yesterday's successful negotiation for the release of American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from captivity in North Korea brought the former president back into the national spotlight. Peter joins the conversation on The Takeaway to talk about the former president's role now.

President Barack Obama and other G-8 leaders are meeting in Italy today. Top of their agenda is climate change. The leaders of the world's top industrialized nations are aiming at new targets to battle global warming, including a goal of keeping the world's average temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius. But the wealthy nations were unable to persuade leaders of developing countries to commit to reductions of their own. Their cooperation is considered critical to avoiding the worst effects of climate change. Joining us from L'Aquila, Italy, is Peter Baker, New York Times correspondent, and Richard Gowan, associate director of New York University's Center on International Cooperation, a thinktank that works on the G-8, the U.N. and the World Bank.

President Obama delivered a strong speech on national security yesterday. And then, so did former Vice President Dick Cheney, who harshly critcized the current commander in chief. Meanwhile the liberal wing of the Democratic party is lambasting Obama as well. Pitting the extremes against each other while sliding through the middle -- "triangulation" -- is a political strategy that former President Bill Clinton came to rely on. Peter Baker, White House correspondent for The New York Times, joins The Takeaway to discuss how Obama seems to be developing a triangulation strategy of his own.

For more, read Peter Baker's article, Obama Faces Pitfalls With ‘Surgical’ Tack on Detainees, in the New York Times.

Last month, President Obama sent a secret hand-delivered letter to Russia's President Dmitri Medvedev. It was an offer: the U.S. would back off from deploying a new missile defense system in Eastern Europe, if Moscow would help deter Iran from developing long-range weapons. Moscow has not responded to the letter, but many people see this as an effort to reset the relationship between the U.S. and Russia. New York Times reporter Peter Baker wrote a front page story on this and he joins us now.

For more, read Peter Baker's article, Obama Offered Deal to Russia in Secret Letter in today's New York Times.

In a press conference at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, President Obama announced his plan for troop withdrawal from Iraq. The plan calls for removing American combat troops by Aug. 31, 2010, and the rest by the end of 2011 and the announcement caught some by surprise. While some Democrats say it’s slower than promised, military leaders seem satisfied. The New York Times’ Peter Baker joins John with an analysis.

Here is the Pentagon Channel's broadcast on the announcement:

Continuing his string of reversals of Bush administration policies, President Obama is set to allow California to opt out of federal regulations and set stricter standards to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars. More than a dozen other states may adopt the same standards. Struggling automakers have said that complying with the new rules will cost billions. New York Times reporter Peter Baker joins The Takeaway to explain the significance of the change in federal policy.

For more, read Peter Baker's article, Obama’s Order Is Likely to Tighten Auto Standards, in today's New York Times.

The seemingly unflappable soon-to-be President Barack Obama has all eyes on him today, but by now he should be pretty used to the attention. For the past 77 days since the election he has projected the calm, cool and collected image of a man who today will formally inherit the many burdens that plague this nation. New York Times reporter Peter Baker has a piece in today’s paper about what those 77 days say about the President-elect.

For more, read Peter Baker's article,Transition Holds Clues to How Obama Will Govern , in today's New York Times.

Despite the fact that he hasn't taken office yet, President-elect Barack Obama is hard at work to get the economy jump started. On Sunday his advisers announced that he plans to include about $300 billion in tax cuts for workers and businesses in his economic recovery program. Joining us to discuss is Peter Baker, the New York Times reporter who covered this issue in today's paper.

Read Peter Baker's article in today's New York Times.

In just over a month President-elect Barack Obama will take over the White House and right now an unprecedented transition is taking place. While there have been transitions before, this is the first in the post-9/11 federal government and the first changing of the guard at the Department of Homeland Security. Peter Baker from the New York Times has been covering the issue.

For more of Peter Baker's coverage, read his article "Obama Team Has Forged Another Link With Clintons," in today's edition of the New York Times.

While President-elect Obama does not plan to officially unveil his national security team until after Thanksgiving, one thing seems pretty clear among Washington insiders: Defense Secretary Robert Gates is not going anywhere. For the first time, a Pentagon commander will be asked to keep his post during a transition between presidents of two different parties. The Takeaway talks to Peter Baker ("Obama Plans to Retain Gates at Defense Department " [New York Times]) about Obama’s decision.