(CNN) – President Barack Obama addressed via video conference several Democratic caucus sites in Iowa Tuesday, four years after winning the state’s contest in a surprise victory that fueled his campaign on a path to the nomination.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do. But think about the change that was accomplished because of those caucuses four years ago,” Obama said.

Five weeks (36 days!!!) to go until Iowa… Can Gingrich capitalize on the Union Leader’s endorsement?… Next up on Capitol Hill’s agenda this week: payroll tax cut… New tensions with Pakistan… DNC hits Romney in new TV ad… And Christmas break with Ron Paul.
By NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Brooke Brower

*** Five weeks to go: Here’s where we stand in the GOP presidential race with five weeks (36 days!!!) to go until the Iowa caucuses: 1) Mitt Romney remains the overall favorite — with his money, campaign staff, and poll position — but he hasn’t been able to pull away from the field, and he’s a TV ad away from being all-in in Iowa; 2) Newt Gingrich, fresh off from his New Hampshire Union Leader endorsement, has emerged as the latest Romney alternative, but the question is whether he can survive the next 36 days;

Cambridge, Massachusetts (CNN) — With Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s dramatic demise this Thursday morning, the world is rid of a tyrant, and a free Libya has jumped a mile forward to stability (though, as CNN’s Ben Wedeman reports, there are still many more miles to go).

Yet in America, we are speeding toward the 2012 presidential elections, and talk quickly turns to the political considerations here. President Obama appeared Thursday afternoon in the White House Rose Garden to celebrate this “momentous day in the history of Libya” and to declare that “one of the world’s longest dictators is no more.”

WASHINGTON — The State Department shot down a report Thursday that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been in discussions with the White House about heading the World Bank.

“The story is completely untrue,” Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said in the United Arab Emirates, where Clinton was involved in international talks on Libya.

He said Clinton has not had any conversations with President Barack Obama, the White House “or anyone else about moving to the World Bank. She has expressed absolutely no interest in the job. She would not take it if offered.”

When Henry Cuellar took to the Speaker’s podium at the United States House of Representatives with an iPad in his hand recently, the congressman had no idea he was accelerating a course of change in the august body.

“If you look at available technology, properly leveraged it can make us a more efficient Congress,” Rep. Cuellar (D-Texas) told iPadNewsDaily in a phone interview. “There is so much immediate information we can gather with an iPad.”

Imagine, said Cuellar, being able to use the device for legislative purposes like downloading a bill or searching for points in an amendment that are being discussed on the floor in real-time. It can mean the difference between introducing fact or hearsay.

Washington (CNN) — In what are either last-minute head games or reflections on a shifting electorate, Democrats are predicting better-than-expected results for their side while Republicans are downplaying the extent of their expected victory in Tuesday’s congressional elections.

With less than 48 hours before polling booths open, the comments on Sunday talk shows stayed true to the anticipated Republican gains in both chambers of Congress but continued to differ widely on exact totals.

(CNN) — In a few days, Americans could carve out a monument to the Tea Party’s power — or etch out the movement’s political tombstone.

The outcome of the midterm elections will either validate the Tea Party as a national force or cause both Democrats and Republicans to second-guess the movement’s impact. But dead or alive after Election Day, the Tea Party has earned a place in history.

NEW YORK – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spent nearly a half-hour Friday meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the Obama administration tried to prevent Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from collapsing.

The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the talks if Israel does not extend a slowdown in West Bank settlement activity that expires on Sunday.

After Clinton’s 25-minute meeting with Abbas, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters that the U.S. efforts to keep the talks alive were continuing.

Washington (CNN) — House Democratic leaders met with President Barack Obama on Wednesday night to discuss legislative priorities in the run-up to the November mid-term election, but one topic was bypassed — the weekend assessment by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs that Republicans could win back the chamber.

Aides to the House Democratic leaders told CNN that the meeting with Obama was productive and focused mostly on economic issues and policy.

WASHINGTON – Taking another unconventional stand, Kentucky’s Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul criticized President Barack Obama’s handling of the Gulf oil spill Friday as anti-business and sounding “really un-American.”

Paul’s defense of oil company BP PLC came during an interview as he tried to explain his controversial take on civil rights law, an issue that seemed to suddenly swamp his campaign after his victory in Tuesday’s GOP primary.