Presidential Elections

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama congratulated Iraqi MPs Sunday on approving a new law to govern 2010 general elections, saying it was an important step towards ensuring a lasting peace.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Monday, amid Washington's faltering efforts to jump-start stalled Middle East peace talks.

Once a year, Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao gives the Washington establishment a little jolt.

On Health Care Vote, Democrats Play Down Election Results

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi lawmakers passed a long-delayed election law on Sunday to pave the way for a January poll, after parliament sidestepped a potentially explosive row over the oil-producing city of Kirkuk.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's fractious MPs on Sunday finally approved a law to govern the country's general election in early 2010, a move hailed by US President Barack Obama as an important step towards a lasting peace.

BAGHDAD — After nearly a dozen delays and a final, rowdy session, Iraq's parliament on Sunday passed a law setting national elections for January, averting for now a political crisis that threatened to unravel the country's slow progress toward stability.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrats Sunday girded for the next battle to push the most sweeping US health care overhaul in a half-century through Congress, after handing President Barack Obama victory in a narrow House vote.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama hailed the Iraqi parliament's passage Sunday of a much-delayed election law, declaring it a milestone as the Iraqi people take charge of their future.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Sunday the approval of a long-delayed election law by Iraq's parliament would allow the polls to go ahead early next year and pave the way for the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

WASHINGTON - Obama: New Iraqi election law an important milestone, advances political process to bring lasting peace

WASHINGTON - Democrats just don't get the election message from voters and are pushing a liberal, big government agenda at their party's peril, Republican officials said Sunday as they predicted a political price after the majority's victory on health care.

GINOWAN, Japan (Reuters) - Thousands of Japanese gathered in sweltering heat on the southern island of Okinawa on Sunday to demand that a U.S. Marine base be moved out of the region, days ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama.

DES MOINES – Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty used his Iowa debut as a potential presidential candidate Saturday to excoriate President Obama and congressional Democrats for not doing more to address the still-wheezing economy.

A number of Democratic House members who didn't side with their party on the health care bill represent districts that voted for John McCain over Barack Obama in the 2008 election.

As health reform shifts back to the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid is facing dissent from fellow Democrats worried that he has no final bill, no Democratic consensus on the way ahead and no guarantee he’ll finish by year’s end.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Saturday he was "absolutely confident" the Senate would follow the lead of the House of Representatives in passing legislation to overhaul the healthcare system.

WASHINGTON - Oh, how the tables have turned.

Nancy Pelosi clapped her hands as she left the House floor late Saturday night.

The House of Representatives passed legislation for the first time Saturday night that would provide health coverage to almost every American after nearly a century of false starts and un-kept campaign promises.

With Democrats confident of their chances, the House of Representatives began a series of historic votes Saturday night on legislation that would provide health coverage to almost every American after nearly a century of false starts and un-kept campaign promises.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will attend a memorial service Tuesday honoring victims of the Ford Hood shootings, an attack he described as "all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable" because it occurred on the nation's largest Army post.

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber today will pass legislation on the most far-reaching changes in U.S. health-care policy in four decades as President Barack Obama urged Congress to “rise to this moment.”

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is attending a memorial service at Fort Hood on Tuesday and now won't get to his planned first stop in Asia next week until one day later than expected.

Obama tells Democrats to answer the call of history as they move toward health care vote

With just hours remaining until an historic vote on a sweeping health-care reform measure Saturday evening, at least 34 Democrats have said they will vote against the bill as of 8:45 p.m., according to a POLITICO analysis. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a broad healthcare reform bill on Saturday as they prepared for a close vote on the biggest changes in health policy in four decades.

Text of President Barack Obama's remarks Saturday at the White House on health care legislation:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, will attend a memorial service in Fort Hood, Texas, on Tuesday for victims of a mass shooting.