**President Obama
*AP reports that the White House is conceding it may not meet its deadline for shutting down Guantanamo Bay.

*Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday "that the severe sanctions the West is threatening against Iran could force a change in the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, especially since the country is already under severe economic distress." LA Times notes that Gates also "played down, as he has in the past, the value of military strikes, saying at most they could only retard Iran's nuclear program by an estimated one to three years."

*Speaking Saturday night at the Congressional Black Caucus gala, Obama talked health care, but didn't mention the public option, The Hill notes.

*Lynn Sweet reports on the news that Obama will make the trip to Copenhagen, afterall, to sell Chicago 2016. He'll leave Washington Thursday night and arrive just before the city's presentation to the IOC on Friday. Valerie Jarrett: "In the spirit of the Games, President Obama wants to make sure that we give this our very best effort in the home stretch."

*The Daily News ' found it "odd" when Gov. David Paterson replied "I don't know" in response to David Gregory's inquiry about whether the White House "specifically" told him not to run in 2010. The line of the interview: "I'm blind but I'm not oblivious."

Biden told TV One: "No one is demanding, to the best of my knowledge, that the governor step down," The Hill notes. "If it can be shown that he can win, he should stay in the race."

*More Meddling? The Denver Post reports that as word leaked that he would challenge appointed Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Andrew Romanoff got a job offer from the White House.

**Health Care
New York Times reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is going to the bullpen, and "will lean heavily on President Obama to arbitrate a number of contentious issues that still threaten to divide liberal and centrist Democrats and derail a final bill." "None of these decisions are going to be made without significant presidential input," said Jim Manley, a Reid spokesman.

**Health Care
*"After years of trying to cut Medicare spending, Republican lawmakers have emerged as champions of the program, accusing Democrats of trying to steal from the elderly to cover the cost of health reform. It's a lonely battle," Washington Post reports.

*Roll Call: "The Senate could take up its health care reform bill as soon as the week of Columbus Day, but uncertainties about when it will be ready for prime time could push that tentative timeline back, aides said late last week. Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is shooting to complete his markup of the legislation by Thursday or Friday, senior Senate Democratic aides said. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said he will huddle for several days with the White House, Baucus, and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) to marry the Finance package with a bill that Dodd shepherded through the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in July."

*WSJ: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that House Democrats are weighing a proposal to tax generous health-insurance plans, a step that risks conflict with unions but would help pay for the House's version of health-overhaul legislation. Ms. Pelosi is stepping up action to bring a health bill to the floor quickly, despite divisions in her party on how much to spend and what kind of taxes to levy."

*Stuart Taylor looks at Obama's promises on health care and analyzes his credibility.

**Good News For Us: Gallup: 36 percent of Americans say they're following political news closely -- down from 43 percent in 2008, but a high in a non-presidential election year.

**Campaign Stuff
*Some of the 2012 Republicans were on Mackinac Island this weekend. Mitt Romney, CNN reports, "had sharp words for President Barack Obama's handling of foreign relations Saturday, saying that the president is 'above' the world stage and acting too much as a 'neutral arbiter.'"

*Charlie Crist was there, too, leading Democrat Kendrick Meek to charge he's using 2010 to lay the groundwork for 2012, the St. Pete Times reports.

*George Will, meanwhile, seems like a fan of Marco Rubio.

*This could be tricky. A man named Joe Kennedy, no relation, is running as a libertarian for the Massachusetts Senate seat, the Boston Herald reports.

*Politico looks at how many independent candidates are poised to run for office in 2010.

*GOP12 notes the harsh attack Steve Poizner makes against his Meg Whitman, his GOP rival for California governor, after reports that she hasn't voted.

*Liz Cheney running for office? NY Times writes that "Ms. Cheney, at a minimum, has become a rallying point for conservative views on national security. In a broader sense, she is being promoted as a rising star of the Republican Party, one who is hardly shying from the Cheney brand."

*The Fix looks at the Top 5 House races most likely to switch party control after Nov. 2010 -- three are GOP-controlled.

*"Republicans have repeatedly tried to take down vulnerable Democratic congressmen by linking them to Nancy Pelosi and her liberal politics. It didn't work in 2006 or 2008. And yet, Republicans believe 2010 will be the year Pelosi sinks some of her own members," Politico reports.

*The Topeka Capital-Journal explores Kansas' competitive GOP primary for Senate.

*"German Chancellor Angela Merkel secured a decisive victory in federal elections Sunday, winning enough votes to form a new ruling coalition that should give her a freer hand to govern and provide support for closer ties with Washington," WaPo reports.