Medvedev: And here's the button for my trap door... Photo by Pete Souza/White House

The White House updated its official Flickr with several photos from President Obama’s recent jaunt to Moscow. To sum up: Barack and Dmitry look like total BFFs; Putin likes weird-looking desserts; and while the White House did its best to blur out the details, it looks like the Prez has some pretty cool Inspector Gadget-type toys.

Our colleague Michael Isikoff has a big scoop today: A task force advising President Obama on closing Guantanamo Bay has delayed its first big report amid continued divisions over what to do with detainees. And we’re not simply talking days here. The report, which would detail a long-term strategy on how to deal with prisoners, has been put off for a “few months,” a senior administration official tells Isikoff. That raises questions about whether Obama will be able to meet his January deadline of closing Gitmo. A key area of disagreement: Whether the U.S. should hold some prisoners under “indefinite detention.” As you’ll recall, Obama himself suggested he has serious reservations about the policy in a recent interview with AP. But some administration officials are insisting Obama has no choice. Here's Isikoff:

Three administration officials familiar with the process said the detention task force, which is jointly run by aides to Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, did agree that the Obama administration should continue to claim the right to hold some Guantanamo inmates indefinitely as "combatants" under the "laws of war," without charging them either in criminal courts or in military commissions. That proposal is sure to prove controversial among human rights groups, which say any such "indefinite detention" violates civil liberties and is virtually indistinguishable from legal claims made by President Bush.
 
But the officials say that, as much as the concept of indefinite detention is distasteful to the president and his legal advisors, there is simply no alternative for dealing with potentially dozens of detainees whom the administration doesn't want to release because they are thought to be too dangerous, but can't bring to trial for lack of evidence. But one of the officials insisted the Obama task force will not ultimately endorse the sweeping claims of executive authority made by the Bush administration. The legal basis for detention will rely largely on the narrower 2001 congressional authorization to use military force against the perpetrators of 9/11.

Twice last week, President Obama ripped “naysayers” of his health care reform plan. Phase one of his health care blitz this week: Calling out his opponents more directly. Speaking to reporters at the Children’s National Medical Center here in Washington, Obama cited a remark that Sen. Jim DeMint said last week when speaking to a conference call of GOP activists about health care reform. DeMint, who described the issue as “D-Day for freedom in America,” was rallying the troops to push back on plans for government-run health care. “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo,” DeMint told the group, according to the Politico’s Ben Smith. “It will break him.”

Speaking this afternoon, Obama read DeMint’s quote verbatim, though he attributed it to a “Republican senator” and not to DeMint by name. “Think about that,” Obama said of DeMint’s remarks. “This isn’t about me. This isn’t about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America’s families, breaking America’s businesses and breaking America’s economy. And we can’t afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care, not this time, not now.” Obama vowed to fight against “the politics of the moment.”

DeMint’s remarks provided an obvious opening to the White House to go after Republicans who have been attempting to slow down the work on health care reform by accusing them of doing so for political reasons. The problem: It’s not just Republicans asking to slow the process down.

After a weekend at Camp David, President Obama is back at the White House today where he’ll begin his work week speaking on, what else, health care reform. Obama is scheduled to visit the Children’s National Medical Center here in Washington, where he’ll sit down with doctors before talking to reporters. In the words of Obama’s official WH schedule, he’ll use the moment to “press on health care reform.” Later today, he’ll no doubt bring up the topic again, when he sits down for interviews with NBC’s Today Show and PBS’s Jim Lehrer. As we blogged on Friday, it’s all an effort to seize the bully pulpit. Obama wants to use his personal popularity with the nation to get this health care bill through Congress.

But there are more signs today that Obama might not have the sway he needs on the issue. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll out today shows that while Obama’s overall approval rating remains high, the public isn’t so keen on his handling of health care. Back in April, around the time of his 100-day mark in office, Obama’s approval rating on health care was 57 percent. Now, as he marks his sixth month in office, Obama’s rating has fallen to 49 percent. Of those polled, 44 percent disapprove of how Obama has handled the issue. Back in April, that number was only 29 percent.

Perhaps most striking is where Obama seems to be losing most of his support: independent voters.