President Barack Obama tours the Great Wall in Badaling, China, on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009. (AP)

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Who knew mammograms and Pap smears could headline a week? But here they are this week, shoved into the health care debate just as everything is on the line for reform.

We’ve got the president in China, where the U.S. no longer towers. 9/11 trials coming to New York. The Fed chief warning of another year of high unemployment. Crunch time in the Senate on health care.

And women. Sarah Palin in the news. Oprah, signing off for cable. Hillary Clinton, in Kabul for Hamid Karzai’s inauguration.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Matt Continetti, staff writer at The Weekly Standard. He’s author of the new book, “The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star.”

Jill Lawrence, columnist for Politics Daily.com and longtime reporter for USA Today.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation. She writes the “Editor’s Cut” blog. She’s also a contributor to the Nation’s own take on Sarah Palin, “Going Rouge: An American Nightmare.”

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Sarah Palin’s new memoir, “Going Rogue,” is just out and already a bestseller. It’s in the bookstores today. She’s on Oprah. Her tour bus is hitting the road.

The book settles scores with McCain advisers the ex-Alaskan governor sees as having crimped her style on the vice-presidential campaign trail. Payback is the word. A little redemption, a little revenge. And a lot of stage-setting for whatever comes next.

Will she run for President in 2012? She’s not retreating, reports Sarah Palin. She’s reloading.

This hour, On Point: “Going Rogue” and the political future of Sarah Palin.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us today from Washington are:

Todd Purdum, national editor for Vanity Fair. His August article about Sarah Palin was headlined “It Came from Wasilla.”

Candy Crowley, senior political correspondent for CNN. She’s been reporting on the new Palin media blitz.

David Winston, GOP political consultant and president of The Winston Group. He served as director of planning for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. He currently consults for the House and Senate Republican leadership.

Self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, center, and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees (from left: Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, Waleed bin Attash, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi and Ramzi Binalshibh) will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, the Obama administration announced on Nov. 13, 2009. (AP Photos)

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After eight years — on the run, in secret CIA prisons, being water-boarded, in Guantanamo — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is headed to New York City.

The alleged Al Qaeda mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and five others, will go on trial in lower Manhattan, “just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood,” said Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday.

It will be, without doubt, the trial of this young century. A vindication for American justice, say some. A circus and a threat, say others.

This hour, On Point: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, American justice, and the trial of the century.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Evan Perez, reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

John Hutson, former Judge Advocate General of the US Navy (1997-2000). He’s now president and dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center.

Walter Huffman, former  Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Army (1997 to 2001). He’s dean of the Texas Tech University School of Law.

Josh Gerstein, White House reporter for Politico.

Soldiers Cross, honoring those who lost their lives in last week's shooting, is seen near the podium where President Barack Obama will speak at the memorial service, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009, at Fort Hood, Texas. (AP)

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A solemn week on the war front, at home and abroad.

Taps and empty boots at Fort Hood, Texas and troubling questions about the alleged killer, Nidal Hasan.

A Veterans Day with much to ponder on costs already born and still to be born. An Afghanistan debate in Washington and Kabul that grows deeper with time.

On health care, abortion lands in the middle of reform efforts — and could be the poison pill.

From Guantanamo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 9/11 mastermind, will stand trial in a civilian court in New York City.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us in our studio is Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize-winning and nationally syndicated columnist for The Boston Globe.

Also in our studio we’re joined by David Gergen, director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He served as an advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton.

And from Hanover, N.H., we’re joined by Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

A paper cutout of U.S. President Barack Obama is displayed at a shop Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009 in Shanghai, China. China signaled Thursday that it's ready to allow its currency to rise just days ahead of a visit by President Obama. (AP)

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President Obama, on his way to a week in Asia today. A quick stop in Alaska, then Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, and Seoul, South Korea.

Every stop has its agenda. Bucking up old allies. Talking trade, military bases, America’s commitment in the Pacific.

And at the heart of it all, Washington’s dance with China. Our “vital partner and competitor,” as the president calls it.

Obama will be face to face with China’s top leaders. They build, we buy. They lend, we borrow. It’s a giant relationship at the heart of the world economy.

This hour, On Point: The president goes to Asia.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington, D.C., is James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic. He’s covered East Asia for more than two decades, and he just finished a three-year stint living in China. His latest book is “Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China.”

From Lincoln, Neb., we’re joined by Susan Shirk, professor at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She oversaw U.S.-China policy at the State Department from 1997 to 2000, and she founded the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue, a forum that right now is sponsoring high-level talks between North Korea, the United States and others over Korean peninsula nuclear issues. Her latest book is “China: Fragile Superpower.”

And from Shanghai, China, we’re joined by Shen Dingli, professor and executive dean of Fudan University’s Institute of International Studies, in Shanghai. He’s director of Fudan University’s American Studies program. He’s also a fellow at the Asia Society. For a sense of how he sees China-U.S. competition in the coming decades, see his recent paper for the Centre for European Policy Studies.

Spc. Ryan Howard of Niles, Mich., right, and Spc. David Straub of Ardmore, Okla., wait for news of fellow soldiers while waiting at the gate of the Fort Hood, Texas, Army base on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009. (AP)

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A shock out of Texas at the end of this week, and a day of horror.

Thirteen killed, thirty wounded at Fort Hood in a shooting rampage in the heart of an American military base. Apparently by a uniformed Army major, Nidal Malik Hasan.

It’s a tragedy and horror the country is still taking on board — overshadowing the economy, where unemployment has hit 10.2 percent. Overshadowing state elections and their fallout. An imminent health care vote. Hard news in Afghan and Palestinian politics.

This hour, On Point: The killings at Fort Hood, and the news of the week in review.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Dallas, Texas, is Bill McKenzie, editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News.

Joining us from New York is Hendrick Hertzberg, staff writer for The New Yorker. His new book is “Obamanos!: The Birth of a New Political Era.”

And from Hanover, N.H., is Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (left) gets ready to testify before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009, as the Committee's Chairman, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) presided. (AP)

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One year ago, the U.S. government and all of us were over a big, ugly barrel. Bail out the mega banks, or they would crash and take the whole economy down with them. “Too big to fail.”

And so we bailed and bailed and bailed. Billions and billions in taxpayers’ dollars to save the banks that had driven the crisis. And the cry went up: “Never again.”

Well, now the tools for “never again” are on the table, and there’s a huge debate over whether they will work, or bring Wall Street running back for more.

This hour, On Point: How to fix “too big to fail” on Wall Street.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us in our studio is Kenneth Rogoff, professor of economics and public policy at Harvard University. His new book is “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.”

Joining us from Washington is Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.  He’s spearheading the Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009.

Also from Washington we’re joined by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), member of the House Financial Services Committee. He calls the Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009 “TARP on steroids.”

 

President Barack Obama salutes as the remains of Army Sgt. Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute, Ind., are carried from a plane at Dover Air Force Base on Thursday morning, Oct. 29, 2009. According to the Department of Defense, Sgt. Griffin died in Afghanistan. (AP)

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Recession? What recession? We’ve got 3.5 percent growth in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said this week — so maybe that’s over. Or maybe not.

In Pakistan, Hillary Clinton took jabs — until she hit back. Pakistan must know where Al Qaeda is, she said, and could get them if they wanted to.

We’ve got a health plan from the House this week, an all-night vigil by the president at Dover Air Base, no decision yet on troops and Afghanistan, and no flu vaccine for lots of people in line. A skinny rocket goes up. Michael Jackson’s back.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Anne Kornblut, White House correspondent for The Washington Post. Her forthcoming book is “Notes from the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and What It Will Take for a Woman to Win.”

Also from Washington we’re joined by Howard Fineman, senior Washington correspondent and columnist at Newsweek. His latest  book, now out in paperback, is “The Thirteen Arguments.”

And from Hanover, N.H., we’re joined by Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

More links:

In today’s roundtable we talked about Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain who became the first foreign service official serving in Afghanistan to publicly resign in protest over the war. The Washington Post reported on the story and posted Hoh’s resignation letter.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) whispers with Kai Eide, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, looks on during a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009. Afghanistan's election commission Tuesday ordered a Nov. 7 runoff in the disputed presidential poll. (AP)

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Two pilots may have been asleep this week with 147 passengers onboard. The pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, was not.

New pay cuts rolled out for top execs at bailed-out banks, and Fed oversight for pay at thousands of banks across the country.

In Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai bows to election fraud charges and a likely runoff vote. Pakistan and the Taliban go bloody nose to nose.

On Capitol Hill, the health care “public option” comes back. Bad polls for the GOP. And the White House tangles with Dick Cheney and Fox News.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Jay Newton-Small, congressional correspondent for Time magazine. She also writes for Time’s “Swampland” politics blog.

Tom Gjelten, NPR correspondent covering national security and intelligence. His new book, just out in paperback, is: “Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: A Biography of a Cause.”

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor for The Atlantic.

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One year after a public bailout, the bonuses are back — big-time — at Goldman Sachs. The headline now: a $23 billion bonus pool estimated on the way for the bankers.

Meanwhile, unemployment is sky high. Foreclosures, too. And middle class anxiety.

You can feel the discontent, the anxious volatility in America right now. My guest today says one way or another it’s the stuff of revolution.

Really? Here? We’ll hear his case — and we’ll hear from an historian who says it’s not so easy to light that American fuse.

This hour, On Point: The powder keg argument, American history, and America now.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Bruce Judson, senior faculty fellow at the Yale University School of Management. He’s author of the new book, “It Could Happen Here: America on the Brink.”

Lawrence Goodwyn, professor emeritus of history at Duke University. He’s author of “The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America” and “Breaking the Barrier: The Rise of Solidarity in Poland.”

President Barack Obama walks from the Oval Office to the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 9, 2009, to make remarks about being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. (AP)

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Barack Obama’s presidential scorecard is getting one tough going-over these days.

The Nobel Peace Prize committee may see his message alone as a winner. Critics on the left and right do not. When they’re not charging socialism, conservatives crow he is all talk. Progressives complain he hasn’t delivered when it comes to change.

A massive healthcare reform could shift the tone — and right now it’s moving on Capitol Hill. But the audience has grown tough. Even on Saturday Night Live.

This hour, On Point: Arianna Huffington, Byron York, and Jack Beatty, on the Obama scorecard now.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

Byron York, chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

Watch Saturday Night Live’s Oct. 3 skit on President Obama’s scorecard (and see what the fact-checking site Politifact had to say about the SNL checklist):

Lt. Col. William McCollough, Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion 5th Marines, talks with local elders during a planned meeting, in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Oct. 6. (AP)

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Decision time is looming on U.S. troops and Afghanistan. Again this week, the White House war council meets in the Situation Room. On the table, a Pentagon request for 40,000 — maybe 60,000 or 80,000 – more troops in the field.

This is a watershed decision. Huge. Yet much of the public debate seems far from realities on the ground: the bomb-scarred streets and mountain passes and distant outposts up against the Taliban.

This hour, On Point: We’ll go to correspondents reporting from the heart of the conflict, for ground truth, on-the-ground reality, in Afghanistan.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Kabul, Afghanistan, is Laura King, foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. She reported recently on an attack on U.S. bases near the Pakistani border that left eight Americans dead.

Joining us from Essex, Connecticut, is Pam Constable, foreign correspondent for The Washington Post. She has been covering India, Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1998. She is now based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and reported recently on Afghan attitudes toward the U.S. troop presence.

And from New York, we’re joined by Martin Smith, documentary filmmaker and correspondent for the PBS series Frontline. Winner of four Emmys and three George Polk Awards, his many Frontline documentaries include “Return of the Taliban” (2006), “In Search of Al Qaeda” (2002), and “Hunting bin Laden” (1999/2001). His new documentary, “Obama’s War,” based on his on-the-ground reporting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, premieres tonight on PBS.

President Barack Obama listens during a meeting about the current situation in Pakistan on Oct. 7, 2009 in the Situation Room of the White House. (White House Photo/Pete Souza)

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A stunner from Oslo.  Eight and a half months into his presidency, President Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize.  For creating, said the committee, “a new international climate.” 

The news tops a week in which the White House was hunkered down in war council over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. 

A week of bombings in Kabul and Peshawar.  A swooning US dollar.  A green light on the cost of health care reform. Letterman in shame.  And NASA blasting the moon. 

This hour, On Point:  Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Chrystia Freeland, U.S. managing editor of The Financial Times.

Jonathan Martin, senior political writer for Politico.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, left, is seen with Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili, right, at the opening of the Geneva talks between Iran, the U.S., and five world powers in Geneva, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. (AP)

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Earthquake and tsunami in Sumatra and Samoa this week. Elsewhere, battling on.

In Geneva, no earthquake, but the big powers — the U.S. included — did sit down with Iran for nuclear talks, and made some progress.

In Copenhagen, it was all Olympics. At the White House, real debate over whether to boost troops in Afghanistan. In the Senate, no public option.

Saturn, the great motor hope, will die. The Dow wobbles. And September unemployment, up not down: 9.8 percent.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Jill Dougherty, foreign affairs correspondent for CNN.

Also from Washington we’re joined by Margaret Talev, White House correspondent for McClatchy.

And from Hanover, N.H., is Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

Standing in front of a backdrop of the Chicago skyline, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama speaks at a dinner in support Chicago hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009, in Copenhagen.

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President Obama, on his way to Copenhagen tonight, to lobby for his town, Chicago, to get the Summer Olympics in 2016. Michelle Obama, already there. And Oprah. And Chicago Mayor Daley. And on, and on.

Tokyo’s in the running, with a prince and princess in town to lobby. Madrid, with the king of Spain.

But the smart money says the big challenger is Rio de Janeiro, out of booming Brazil. South America’s never had the Olympics. Rio wants it badly. So does Chicago. Mostly.

This hour, On Point: We’ll hear the cases they’re making. Chicago versus Rio, head to head, for the Olympics.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Copenhagen is Brian Cazeneuve, staff writer for Sports Illustrated. He wrote this week about “the pros and cons of each bid for the 2016 Olympics.”

Also from Copenhagen we’re joined by David Wallechinsky, Olympics scholar and Vice President of the International Society of Olympic Historians. He’s author of  “The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics” and “The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics.”

Joining us from Chicago is Laura Washington, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. See the Sun-Times’ coverage of the 2016 bid.

Joining us from Miami is Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center International Center for Scholars. He spent 17 years as the Washington correspondent for Estado de Sao Paulo, a leading Brazilian newspaper.

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Vali Nasr, Iranian-born Iran scholar and adviser to the Obama administration, sees the same headlines you do when it comes to the Muslim world.

Just in the last week, it’s terror plots, missile tests, and nuclear dreams. And Nasr is advising special envoy Richard Holbrooke as the U.S. decides on more troops for Afghanistan.

It’s a daunting line-up. And still, he says, look behind the headlines.

There’s a Muslim middle class rising that wants business, not bombs. Exports, not extremism.

If they win, he says, moderation wins.

This hour, On Point: Vali Nasr on Islamic extremism and the Muslim world’s middle class.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Vali Nasr joins us from Washington. A leading thinker on the Islamic world, he is professor of international relations at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a senior adviser to Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. His new book is “Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What it Will Mean for Our World.”

Read an excerpt from “Forces of Fortune.”

President Barack Obama chairs a meeting of the United Nations Security Council at the United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009. At rear is U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. (AP)

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The small-world principle was on big display in the U.S. this week. Leaders from all over, sitting elbow to elbow at the UN in New York. Leaders of the world’s twenty most powerful economies descending on Pittsburgh.

We’ve got a nuclear weapons vote in the Security Council. “Rebalancing” on the table at the G20. Explosive charges that Iran is hiding secret nuclear capacity.

Health care reform grinding on in Wahsington. And terrorism plot allegations tumbling out of Denver, Dallas, and Springfield, Illinois.

This hour, On Point: Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Ruth Marcus, editorial writer and columnist for The Washington Post.

Also from Washington, we’re joined by Susan Glasser, executive editor of Foreign Policy magazine.

And from Hanover, N.H., we’re joined by Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

Workers at a Chinese factory in Beijing last month. China strongly opposed President Barack Obama's decision to impose punitive tariffs on imports of car and light truck tires, calling it protectionism that violates World Trade Organization rules. (AP)

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The G20 sits down in Pittsburgh today — leaders of the world’s rich and emerging-rich nations.

The Obama administration is clear on what it wants out of Pittsburgh: a commitment to “rebalance” the world’s economy, for China to buy more of its own products, and Americans to make more of their own.

Coming on the heels of a fat new U.S. tariff on Chinese tires, that sounds to some like trade-war talk. Protectionism. The end of globalization as we’ve known it.

Some Americans want that. Others say, hold on.

This hour, On Point: The G20, trade, and “rebalancing” the global economy.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington is Zanny Minton Beddoes, economics editor for The Economist. She edited last week’s cover story, “Playing with fire,” about the Obama administration’s “alarming trade row with China.” Also see The Economist editorial, “Economic vandalism,” on Barack Obama and free trade.

Also from Washington we’re joined by Robert Scott, senior international economist and director of international programs at the Economic Policy Institute. He studies trade agreements and their impact on working people in the U.S. and other countries, as well as the macro-economic effects of trade and capital flows.

Joining us from Ithaca, New York, is Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China Division. His recent op-ed for The Wall Street Journal was headlined “A Dangerous Game of Trade ‘Chicken.’”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech, in front of pictures of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, before Friday prayers at Tehran University on Friday, Sept. 18, 2009. (AP)

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President Obama, before the United Nations General Assembly and the world today, talking about the world’s challenges and how the United States cannot solve them alone.

In the middle of those challenges — and very soon at the center of six-party talks including the United States and, for the first time, the Obama administration — Iran and its nuclear program.

Can the Obama White House succeed where others have failed in rallying the world to cut Iran off from the path to nuclear weapons?

This hour, On Point: On and offstage at the UN — diplomacy, threats, and tackling the challenge of Iran.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us in our studio is David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times and author of “The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power.”  You can read an excerpt here.

From New York, we’re joined by Gary Sick, senior scholar and professor of Middle East Politics at Columbia University. He served on the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan and was principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis. He’s author of “All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter With Iran” and “October Surprise: America’s Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan.” He blogs at Gary’s Choices.

And from Berlin, we’re joined by Constanze Stelzenmuller, senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She is former defense and international security editor at the German weekly Die Zeit.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, gestures during his news conference on health care legislation, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009. (AP)

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Healthcare moves and missile-shield news this week.

In the Senate, Max Baucus finally delivers his proposal on healthcare reform. Questions now: Will he get a single Republican vote? Will enough Democrats sign on to pass or change the bill? Was it worth trying to compromise?

Poland and the Czech Republic will not have American missiles aimed over Russia at Iran. There are better ways to defend, says President Obama — and George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Robert Gates.

We’ve got trade war talk. Carter on race. This hour, On Point: our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Michael Gerson, columnist for The Washington Post, contributor to Newsweek, and senior research fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation. You can read her latest writings on politics at her “Editor’s Cut” blog.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.