president obama took a victory lap on don t ask, don t tell, the s.t.a.r.t. treaty and first responders bill. so much for a lame-duck congress. you know what? its with a good couple weeks and i think the white house and congress got a lot done. but here is the warning that i would give to the white house. where their victories came were in noneconomic areas. where they got their hands slapped was in the area of tax reform and where they had to give everything away, the republicans are going to hold tight when it comes to fiscal policy. social policy, don t ask, don t tell, they did great stuff but it s going to have a tough, tough january when the budget is front and center. downer. downer. this is the reality of the politics in washington. to talk about the politics, we re joined by john avalon who is senior political columnist and none other than steve. should the democrats be taking a victory lap or not? well, i think eliot put it in good perspective there. y
out. the president may come out and let us know. he has already got someone tapped to put in place. but we will know in five minutes from the president more details about what will happen. wolf blitzer is standing by, our best political team is standing by in washington, d.c. jong king, candy crowley and all of them. want to hand it over and turn it up to washington, d.c. now for our special coverage. t.j., thanks very much. very dramatic developments happening right now, that could shape the future of the war in afghanist afghanistan. as we have been reporting, general stanley mcchrystal out after this fiery article in rolling stone magazine. and now there s word coming in that general david petraeus, the head of the u.s. military central command, will replace him as the nato commander and u.s. commander in afghanistan. john king is working his sources for us. john, you re getting new information all of the time. i m just reading right here right now, wolf. president lost confid
said reid has a difficult hand to play. he says things that are intemperate, he s not very charismatic, he can t come back to the state and wow people. reporter: senator reid has survived tough campaigns before, but republicans are betting this year his luck will run out. now, wolf, playing in senator reid s favor, a couple of factors. one, he can raise as much money as he ll need. two, hundreds of thousands of new voters have moved to nevada since he last ran for election, so the campaign feels they can still persuade them, and then here s an unexpected one. there is a tea party candidate who has recently entered the race, if you factor him into the most recent polls, it looks like he siphons off some conservative voters and could actually give reid a narrow victory, wolf? all right, we ll watch it with you. jessica yellin reporting. let s assess with gloria borger and cnn s jong king, the new show, john king, usa, airs at the top of the hour. health care reform, he took the
that s been billed as one of the toughest he s ever had from a conservative. someone who says he s to the right of john mccain, j.d. hayworth. it has been competitive at the polls so the senator brought in the big guns, the big star, a lot of people would say, sarah palin to help him out. it was ironic, he was the one that put her on the national stage a year and a half ago. time for me to say good-bye. thank you for being here with me sitting in for rick sanchez. time to hand it over to wolf blitzer and the situation room. thank you. happening on this story, john mccain and sarah palin appearing together on stage for the first time since their failed 2008 presidential race. can she help him avoid defeat in his home state of arizona? also a possible health care emergency now that health care reform is the law of the land. there may not be enough primary care doctors to go around. our dr. sanjay gupta is investigating. the pro basketball star. the all-star, gilbert are