All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

**Obama becomes the first U.S. president to chair a UN Security Council meeting...

** Deval Patrick names an interim senator to replace Ted Kennedy...

**The Senate slogs through health care...

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The president winds up his attendance at U.N. by chairing a Security Council meeting this morning – the first U.S. president to do so. Later, he and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown co-chair a meeting on Pakistan.

This afternoon, Mr. Obama heads to Pittsburgh for the G-20 Summit and attends a working dinner there tonight.

At the U.N. Security Council meeting this morning, the president "will use the forum of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to press his efforts to slow the spread of nuclear weapons and reduce global stockpiles," reports the Washington Post's Mary Beth Sheridan and Colum Lynch. "Diplomats have finished negotiating a Security Council resolution that affirms many of the steps Obama plans to pursue as part of his vision for an eventual 'world without nuclear weapons.' They include a new worldwide treaty halting production of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium and the strengthening of the global Non-Proliferation Treaty, which has controlled the spread of nuclear weapons for decades but now is in danger of fraying."

Meantime, what's expected at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh this week?

McClatchy Newspapers' Margaret Talev and Kevin G. Hall report, "As the leaders of the Group of 20 nations gather Thursday and Friday for an economic summit in Pittsburgh, they'll be testing two themes: How much appetite remains for coordinated economic decision-making among the world's leading and developing nations as the global crisis shifts into recovery mode?

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President Obama is in Moscow today for a two-day summit with top Russian officials and the White House has released a transcript of an interview between the President and Novoya Gazeta – a Russian newspaper known for investigative work in politics.

The interview, published today, discussed the goals of the trip and touched upon the cause of the current economical crisis.

Mr. Obama said the U.S. is not responsible for the world's economic difficulties, contrary to the general opinion of the Russian public.

"We all are experiencing a severe economic crisis that is affecting the lives of many people in countries around the world," Mr. Obama said . "We need to spend less time thinking about who is to blame and more time working together to do what needs to be done to get all of our economies moving in the right direction."

Mr. Obama also discussed his financial regulation reform and the role it plays in the U.S. financial system.

"The plans include three important components," Mr. Obama said. "First, we're proposing a set of reforms to require regulators to look not only at the safety and soundness of individual institutions, but also -- for the first time -- at the stability of the financial system as a whole. Second, we're proposing a new and powerful agency charged with just one job: looking out for ordinary consumers. Third, we're proposing a series of changes designed to promote free and fair markets by closing gaps and overlaps in our regulatory system -- including gaps that exist not just within but between nations."

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President Obama went to Strasbourg, France, to talk to French and German students, but nearly half of the questions that he fielded were from American audience members. In fact, the very first question that Mr. Obama found himself answering, dealing with his legacy, was from an American exchange student.

At one point the president pleaded with Americans in the audience to give their European counterparts a chance, promising that he would host another town hall for them on U.S. soil.

Mr. Obama even addressed an issue that has been quite prevalent in coverage of his first months in office – when is the White House puppy coming?

"We are getting a dog," Mr. Obama assured the audience. "It should be there soon."

But the president also found time to address weightier issues during his exchange with students. He touched upon nuclear proliferation, global poverty, the rising cost of health care and the importance of civic engagement.

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