When I saw Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) leaning over the aisle as Obama entered the House chamber before the speech, my first thought was, Awkward. But when the President made his way over to Shelby, I’m pretty sure the Republican apologized for the whole we-don’t-know-if-he’s-an-American-and-a-legitimate-president thing. I’m hoping someone who is better at lip-reading than [...]

Viewers at home may wonder why, when the camera pans to the audience, most of the members of Congress, cabinet, Supreme Court and Joint Chiefs have their heads down. The answer is simple: they’re reading along in prettily bound commemorative copies of Obama’s speech. Why, you may ask, would the the audience be given copies of the [...]

The White House has put out this excerpt from tonight’s speech: But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this:  We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than [...]

AP is reporting that the Obama Administration will opt for a 19-month timetable for leaving Iraq. I’m told that the President will give a speech on Friday. The withdrawal will still leave 30-50,000 U.S. troops in place to continue training the Iraqi military and for special ops. There will, no doubt, be carping from the [...]

A bunch of news outlets, including the Huffington Post and the Wall Street Journal, are excited about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony that the economy may be in recovery by 2010. “Irrational Exuberance” HuffPo blares. “Bernanke Suggests Recession Will End This Year. . . 2010 ‘Will Be A Year Of Recovery.’” Well that’s one [...]

Ahmed Rashid–one of the world’s most fearless journalists and the very best working the Af/Pak beat–files this, depressing update on the slow-motion collapse of Pakisan for the Los Angeles Times.

My TIME.com story is here. Speech begins at 9 p.m. EST. Also, don’t miss Joe’s preview, which is the next post, below.

As he heads into his big budget speech tonight–the rookie equivalent of a State of the Union Address–Barack Obama gets high marks from the public in both the New York Times and the Washington Post polls. The Republican attempt to play politics as usual at a time of national crisis receives low marks. Indeed, a [...]

Here’s a web story from me on Eric Cantor. My favorite quote that didn’t make the story: “I do particularly look forward to being constructive not obstructive because the problems facing this country are so large.”