Administration

President Obama on Tuesday formally announced that U.S. troops have turned over control of Iraq to the country's own government and security forces.

Speaking at the White House, Obama said the U.S. met today's deadline, which is part of the Status of Forces Agreement that was signed under the previous administration. Obama has said since taking office that he plans to follow through on that agreement and remove all troops from Iraq by 2011.

Obama noted that Iraqis are "rightly treating this day as a cause for celebration," but he also noted that challenges still lie ahead.

"With this progress comes responsibility," he said. "Iraq's future is in the hands of its own people."

He also said he expects there to be "difficult days" in the future and said he expects continued violence in the country. A deadly car bomb in Kirkuk on Tuesday is just one example that the country is not entirely secure, the president said.

Obama also thanked U.S. soldiers for their work in the country.

"Our troops have overcome every obstacle to extend this opportunity to the Iraqi people," Obama said.

This post was updated at 3:15 P.M.

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President Obama continues to believe that overthrown leader Manuel Zelaya is the leader of Hondurus, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday.

Zelaya was expelled from Honduras in a military coup over the weekend.

Via CBS's Mark Knoller's Twitter feed:

On Honduras, Gibbs says the WH is seeking to restore the democratic process there and still regards Zelaya as President.

Knoller also tweeted that Obama said the coup in Hondorus was "not legal."

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President Obama has settled on a D.C. church congregation to join and it isn't one that was on most onlookers radar screens.

Time Magazine reports that Obama will join Evergreen Chapel, a nondenominational church at Camp David. It is the same church that President George W. Bush joined when he was in office.

Obama's search for a congregation in D.C. has been well documented. Time's Amy Sullivan provides the rationale behind the move:

A number of factors drove the decision - financial, political, personal - but chief among them was the desire to worship without being on display. Obama was reportedly taken aback by the circus stirred up by his visit to 19th Street Baptist in January. Lines started forming three hours before the morning service, and many longtime members were literally left out in the cold as the church filled with outsiders eager to see the new President. Even at St. John's, which is so accustomed to presidential visitors that it is known as the "Church of the Presidents," worshippers couldn't help themselves from snapping photos of Obama on their camera phones as they walked down the aisle past him to take communion.

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Democrats and the Obama administration are using Rove-like tactics to muscle their agenda through Congress, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said today on Meet the Press.

"I know bipartisanship when I see it. You pay a price for it. There has been no bipartisanship. The stimulus package was Karl Rove politics, pick a few Republicans off, call is bipartisan. The climate change bill was Tom DeLay, banging heads, twisting arms to get one vote more than you needed. So there's really been no change in Washington. [emphasis added]

Graham was one of a handful of Republicans who bucked the Bush White House, especially on issues of torture and executive authority.

Meanwhile, Graham praised President Obama for providing a great example of fatherhood. The First Family, Graham said, has been a role model for America.

Preisdent Obama, quite frankly, has been one of the better role models in the entire country for the idea of being a good parent, a good father. So this idea that we're for a good family and Democrats are silent is not true...quite frankly, President Obama has done a lot of good in the way he carries himself and conducts himself in the way of family.

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President Obama said Tuesday that he has seen the video footage of Neda - the Iranian woman that was shot during demonstrations last weekend.

Obama was asked about Neda during his news conference on Tuesday. He said he has seen the footage, which in many ways has become the visual image of the post election protests in Iran.

"It's heartbreaking," Obama said. "It's, uh, It's heartbreaking."

Anyone who has seen those images, Obama said, sees that "there is something fundamentally unjust" about the crackdown on dissenters.

"I have concern about how peaceful demonstrators and people who want their votes counted may be stifled from expressing those concerns," Obama said.

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President Obama said Tuesday that he constantly struggles with his addiction to smoking and that occasionally he falls off the wagon.

Obama was asked at his news conference about the tobacco legislation he signed on Monday - and led to this not so flattering headline in the New York Times.

"I have said before that as a former smoker, I constantly struggle with it," Obama said. He added that he has "fallen off the wagon" a few times.

But he focused his remarks on the legislation, which he said is meant to help keep younger generations from taking up smoking - something he wishes he had avoided.

"The new law that was put in place is not about me, it's about the next generation," he said.

Obama said he is "95 percent cured" from his addiction and that he does not smoke in front of his kids or his family.

"Am I daily smoker, a constant smoker?" he asked. "No."

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Following up on my earlier post on the new conference, President Obama appears to have made a careful omission in his opening remarks at his news conference on Tuesday.

According to his prepared remarks emailed out to the press list, Obama was supposed to say the following about Iranian officials saying the U.S. for interfering in the election.

The Iranian people are trying to have a debate about their future. Some in the Iranian government are trying to avoid that debate by accusing the United States and others outside of Iran of instigating protests over the elections. These accusations are patently false and absurd.

Obama didn't say that though; he left off the word "absurd."

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President Obama issued most emphatic criticism of Iran on Tuesday, saying the U.S. has been "outraged" by the crack down on dissenters.

Obama, speaking at a White House news conference, said the U.S. and the international community has been "appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments of the last few days."

"I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost," he said.

Obama was careful though to avoid any comments that could be seen as meddling in the election.

"I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not at all interfering in Iran's affairs," he said. "But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place."

The president dismissed criticism from Iranian officials that the U.S. is interfering in the election, saying those remarks are "patently false."

Obama said he is continuing wait to see how the election in Iran plays out and noted that there is a path for Iran to engage with international community and "it is up to them to make a decision as to whether they choose that path."

Obama also took a question from the Huffington Post that the questioner said was directly from an Iranian dissenter. The question asked what it will take for Obama to recognize the election as legitimate.

The president answered by saying that "we can't say definitely what exactly happened at polling places" but that "what we know is that a sizable percentage of Iranian people...consider this election illegitimate."

He declined to lay out any criteria that would lead him to consider, ultimately, whether the election was legitimate or not. Instead, he said that burden is on the Iranian government.

"The most important thing for the Iranian government to consider is legitimacy in the eyes of their own people," Obama said.

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Something tells me the White House isn't too pleased with this headline from the New York Times.

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The lede isn't much kinder:

President Obama does not discuss the fact that he still occasionally smokes, a habit he very publicly tried to kick during his race for the White House.

But there he was on Monday, talking about cigarettes. As he signed legislation bringing tobacco products under federal control for the first time, the president conceded that the new law, aimed at keeping children from starting to smoke, could have helped him three decades ago.

Mr. Obama noted that 90 percent of smokers began on or before their 18th birthday.

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There are a couple interesting findings in Monday's Washington Post/ABC News poll but what's more interesting is what the news organizations are choosing to lead with.

The Washington Post highlights that "barely half of Americans are now confident" that President Obama's stimulus package is working and that the rise of optimism following his election has "abated."

ABC News, meanwhile, leads with Obama maintaining his high approval ratings - 65 percent. That contrasts with other recent polls on Obama's job performance that have shown a slight dip below 60 percent.

Going back to the Post poll, 52 percent say the stimulus is succeeding or will succeed in moving the country out of the current recession - that's down from 59 percent a couple months ago.

The Post also notes while support for the stimulus has slipped, Obama maintains an advantage in pushing his agenda because Republicans are very unpopular. The favorability of congressional Republicans, the Post reports, is at its lowest point in more than a decade.

ABC News also notes high in its story that the mixed view of the stimulus has led to a drop in the percentage of respondents who believe the country is heading in the right direction. Less than half - 47 percent - say the country is on the right track now, that's down from 50 percent in April, the highest it had reached in six years.

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