A New Year, a New Congress…a New Obama?

Barack Obama is still on vacation in Hawaii, but it's definitely a working holiday as he and a handful of close advisors are preparing for the year ahead. Next month, for the first time, President Obama will face a Republican-controlled House, a divided Congress on Capitol Hill and an election in 2012. Aides have already said the President plans to spend more time outside the "bubble" of Washington DC, to take his case directly to voters. Obama's team won credit for bi-partisan cooperation in getting important bills passed during the final days of the last Congress, but the Administration angered many Democrats in making a tax deal with Republicans. How will the new political realities on Capitol Hill affect his legislative agenda? Who will be the new players on Obama's team as he enters the second half of his first term and looks ahead to 2012?