Senior White House Correspondent Major Garrett interviewed David Axelrod, Senior Adviser to the President, Wednesday. 

Axelrod discusses health care reform, Afghanistan, Iran and Tuesday's election results in the wide ranging interview.  Click HERE to watch the interview, or read the transcript below.

 

The president's decision on Afghanistan is still a few weeks away. Will the country know before Thanksgiving?

I'm not going to, Major, give you a precise deadline. The president is working through the options focusing on the objective that he began with and will continue to focus on which is how do you best disrupt, dismantle, and destroy al Qaeda and how do you embrace a strategy in Afghanistan that best facilitates that and he'll make a decision soon based on a thoughtful review of all the options.

 

Based on the deployment schedules communicated to the president will he have sufficient time to be prepared for the Spring?

Absolutely I think that, you know, the troops that he ordered in March are just now completing their arrival and the next troops would not be due there until the Spring and Summer and he has time to make this decision and do it in a thoughtful way.

 

To those who ask me via Twitter and other mechanisms why it's taking so long, what's the answer?

The answer is that whenever you deploy troops and make decisions relative to war you ought to make them based on the best information and get the strategy right, make sure that the strategy serves your goals and that  you're making the right decisions and he owes that to the service men and women who are going, he owes that to their families, and he owes it to the American people.

 

Health care - the goal is Christmas. Is it a realistic goal soft preference or hard demand for this White House?

We want to get this done. It's been a long process. A lot of good work has been done. We're very close to finishing and a lot of the delay right now has to do with the Congressional Budget Office reviewing the Senate proposal and scoring it for cost and impact and so on. And that's delayed the process.  You've got holidays in the way and so on. But we hope that the Senate will work through and get it done. The House seems to be on a more expedited schedule so we have the ability to get this done and we'd like to get it done.

 

Soft preference or hard demand? We want to get it done

 

Iran - there are protests in the street. The president's being apprised of this. There are also reports out of Israel of an intercept of arms possibly from Iran headed to Hezbollah. What is the overall climate right now for the U.S. as it views Iran? The street protests, problems with Israel, continued rebuffing of the enriched uranium proposal. What is all this telling the White House?

Well, we've made it clear to Iran that there's a proposal on the table that would allow them to help their people and would get that uranium out of Iran and satisfy the international community that that uranium wouldn't be used for weapons grade purposes and they ought to seize this opportunity.  The one thing that's happened in last nine months is the international community has come together in a way that it wasn't before so the international community is more united and Iran is more divided.  And if I were the leaders of Iran I would look at those developments and I would factor them into the decision making.

 

Do these actions make the administration more suspicious of what Iran is trying to accomplish?

I don't' think the administration is at all naive about what we're dealing with here. And obviously we operate in a climate in which, you know, there's weariness and there should be. But the point here is that there is a crossroads here and Iran ought to take the right turn because what they're looking at now is a united international community.  The Russians have stood firmly with us, the French, and other nations. And they're willing to act in concert so this ought to be a source of concern to Iran and encourage them to do what would plainly be the right thing here.

 

Why should millions of votes in New Jersey and Virginia matter less than a larger political atmosphere than the relatively smaller number of votes in New York-23?

Well,  i think you have to look at what those races were. The New York-23 race was the one race that was really a microcosm of the national debate.  The other races in New Jersey and in Virginia were really state races very much focused on state issues and Jersey was very much focused on Governor Corzine.  But in New York-23 the issues that we're discussing every day in Washington were very much on the ballot and particularly because of the purge of the republican candidate by the right.  It became more so and what you saw was a pretty vigorous turn out there yesterday in a district that had been held by a republican for 140 years and a democratic candidate won. I think that sends a strong message here.

  Keep Reading ...

President Obama made an impassioned case for incumbent Jon Corzine's re-election in Hackensack, New Jersey, Wednesday, likening the New Jersey governor's electoral bid to his 2008 presidential campaign.

 

"We are at one of those rare moments in history where we've been given the opportunity to change our country for the better," said the President to the crowd 3500 supporters at Fairleigh Dickinson University recalling his historic win last year. "We need that same kind of energy, excitement, commitment around this campaign. And if you do that -- if you do that, I guarantee you're going to have Jon Corzine as governor."

 

Corzine, who suffers a less than desirable approval rating at 57% among New Jersey voters, is currently neck to neck with his opponent Chris Christie. The Governor hoped that appearing with Obama would energize supporters and result in getting more voters to the polls on November 3rd.

 

Without naming Christie by name, Obama took some swipes at the former US attorney on Corzine's behalf. "Now, listening to Jon's opponent, you'd think that New Jersey was the only state in America that's been swept up in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, which by the way did not start under Jon Corzine's party's watch.  There seems to be some selective memory here about how we got into this fix.  Listening to his opponent, you'd think New Jersey was the only state in America that's been facing layoffs. You'd think New Jersey was the only state in America where hardworking men and women are worried about their family's futures.

 Republicans, said Mr. Obama, "got a lot of nerve. They leave this big mess and suddenly they're complaining about how fast we're cleaning it up."

 

As he has in other campaign style speeches, Mr. Obama took the opportunity to talk about his own policies. He told supporters that keeping Corzine in office would help propel big ticket items on his agenda like health care reform, economic reform, and education proposals.

 

Obama's appearance for Corzine was just one in a series of political big hitters batting for the New Jersey Governor. Vice President Joe Biden, former president Bill Clinton and Caroline Kennedy all took to the stump this week for him.

 

The President continues his campaign blitz this week with fundraising events Friday for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd -- both up for re-election next year. And next week, Mr. Obama will hit the trail for Virginia gubernatorial hopeful, Creigh Deeds in Norfolk, VA. Deeds is currently trailing behind opponent Bob McDonnell.

President Obama travels to New Jersey today to campaign for Jon Corzine.  Watch Fox News for the latest updates as White House Correspondent Mike Emanuel reports live from Hackensack, New Jersey.

Incumbent New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and Virginia hopeful Creigh Deeds are both counting on President Obama to secure wins on November 3. Whether they succeed or fail could affect the President's own re-election bid in 2012 and next year's mid term elections.

So why should the President go to bat for either candidate? Larry Sabato, Director for the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia says the President really doesn't have a choice.

"He's gonna be held accountable for the result regardless. He might as well make an effort," explains Sabato, "if [the President] campaigns for the democratic candidates in Virginia and New Jersey, he's not going to be responsible for their winning even if they win,"

Rutgers University Professor of Public Policy Cliff Zukin agrees. "If New Jersey goes republican even if it's by virtue of Chris Christie and statewide issues such as our property tax, it's going to be perceived as a referendum on Obama."

Christie, Corzine's Republican opponent is now head to head with the incumbent governor in the most recent polls. 

 In Virginia, Deeds is trailing behind his republican opponent Bob McDonnell in the polls by an average of 9% according to Real Clear Politics.

Understandably, Democrats are concerned.

Obama won both New Jersey and Virginia comfortably in the 2008 election. Heavily democratic New Jersey was no surprise, but his Virginia win was -- Obama was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in forty-four years. Political experts believe that Obama will need Virginia again if he is to be re-elected.

"That's why you see all the Democrats coming in, is that they know there is something is at stake in the national perception of what's going on in the elections of '09," notes Zukin.

Democrats hope the President's popularity translates into voter turnout. Mr. Obama's job approval, though lower than when he entered office, hovers at just above 50%.

"There's always a chance that Obama could increase the energy level for Democrats generally, for those in northern Virginia - the young, the minorities throughout Virginia who tend to vote heavily democratic," explains Sabato, "these groups have simply not been engaged this year."

According to Zukin, those same groups will have big repercussions in New Jersey as well. "[The President] will bring some enthusiasm and really help democrats get people to the polls and turn out. And that's especially true in our urban areas where democrats usually win by margin of 90 to 10 percent."

Republican voters on the other hand are energized in part due to opposition on a range of the Obama administration's policies from health care reform to the handling of the economy.

"It's very difficult to transfer popularity to another candidate. About all you can do is increase turn out among your party activists. And that's where Obama could make a difference for both Corzine and Deeds. But it's not guaranteed to work in either place," notes Sabato.

Democratic wins in New Jersey and Virginia will give President Obama and his party more confidence heading into the 2010 elections; losses ensure they'll have their work cut for them.

President Obama heads to New York City Tuesday for two fundraising events that a party source says will rake in approximately $2 to 3 million. 

The first event is a dinner for New York congressional  candidate Bill Owens who is running in a special election for the 23rd Congressional District seat in that state.   Tickets for the dinner, which is being held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, are going for $15,200/person and $30,400/ couple.   (Fox News is told there is a raising level for those who cannot write a contribution that size.)  Two hundred people are expected to attend this function.

The second event is a Democratic National Convention fundraiser to be held at the Hammerstein Ballroom.  There will be about 2,700 attendees at this event. Tickets, we're told, start at $100.     This event is also part of the group, Organizing for America's  (OFA) "Time to Deliver"  call parties effort to push for health care reform.    OFA is hosting house parties across the country to meet its goal of 100,000 calls into Congress about reform.  The President's remarks at the fundraiser will be streamed to the parties nationwide.

An optimistic yet stern President Obama gave the financial sector a warning Monday about learning from mistakes and preventing another economic collapse.

"Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall," said Mr. Obama to an audience of financial community members and government officials at Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City. Keep Reading ...

Fox News White House Correspondent Mike Emanuel shows us how President Obama was received in his visit to the Granite State for a Healthcare Town Hall meeting.

In one of the more unique White House settings for a Presidential Town Hall discussion, President Obama discusses Health Care Reform with employees of the Kroger Super Market in Bristol, Va.  Fox News White House Correspondent Mike Emanuel takes a look from behind the counter.

Fox News White House Correspondent Mike Emanuel previews President Obama's first Town Hall today in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Bristol, Virginia is the next stop on the President's road show to Health Care reform.  More to come from Bristol.

The White House is reminding its staffers that "cash for access" events, such as the one planned -- and promptly cancelled -- by the Washington Post are strictly prohibited.

Fox News has obtained a memo from White House Counsel Greg Craig sent Thursday which reminds staffers that, "federal ethics rules restricting the acceptance of gifts govern your ability to accept free admission to events put on by a non-governmental sponsor."

Earlier this week the Washington Post sent fliers to selected lobbyists, offering them the opportunity for an off the record dinner with Obama Administration officials for a fee of between $25,000 and $250,000. The dinner was set to take place at the home of the paper's publisher, Katherine Weymouth and was to include the Post's newsroom staff.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs noted Thursday that he was not aware that any White House staff had received invitations from the Washington Post or that any had been accepted. He added that such an event "would likely exceed what the Counsel would feel in this case would be appropriate."

In acknowledging that many White House staff often receives invitations to similar events, Craig's memo directed staff members to a new online approval process which would streamline the requests. A minimum of 72 hours notice is required for all requests that the Counsel's office must review.

Craig also sought to refresh staffer's minds with the White House gift policy memo, dated March 20, 2009. While that policy doesn't have a specific provision for an event such as the one the Washington Post was going to hold, it does prohibit White House employees from attending events hosted by lobbyists, invited to by lobbyists, and that charge an attendance fee.

The Washington Post cancelled the July 21st event, acknowledging that the fliers to lobbyists were distributed before being "properly vetted," but the Post didn't rule out future events, so long as their newsroom staff would not be involved.