For Tea Partiers, last night's race was a mixed bag. Tea Party candidates did well in states that were already red, like Kentucky, and South Carolina, but failed to make gains in bluer states like Delaware. In Nevada, Sharron Angle, one of the most notorious Tea Party Republicans, lost to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the state's wildly unpopular Democratic Senator.

President Obama has had a large impact on several key Senate races — for better and for worse.

In Pennsylvania's Senate race, Democrat Joe Sestak relied on Obama to rally the core group of African American voters he'll need to win the election – and it appears to be working.

But a little further south, in West Virginia, Democratic Governor Joe Manchin is facing a tough special election bid for the late Sen. Robert Byrd's seat — and has been repeatedly called a "rubber stamp" for Obama.

The Tea Party has grown up fast. Back in April, the news was dominated by images of scrappy rallies and angry voters. By November, Tea Party groups have backed some candidates who seem poised to win their races, and the movement has acquired both serious financial backing and a "godfather" waiting to help them establish power when (or if) they arrive in the Senate this January.

On Tuesday, voters will cast their ballots, bringing mid-term election season to a close. Unless, of course, some races are too close to call. Polls show that close Senate and gubernatorial races in Nevada, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin, Alaska, Colorado, Ohio and Florida could require recounts.

It’s an anxiety-inducing thought — and could potentially leave the House and the Senate hanging in the balance while the chads (or the absentee ballots, or the broken machines) get sorted.

Where are the similarities between presidents number 39 and 44?

Besides a focus on energy policy and putting solar panels on top of the White House, there are also deeper connections. Both Democrats rose quickly to power on the heels of an unpopular Republican presidency. They both faced an economy in crisis.  And they both spent a lot of time in office learning one important lesson, it's nice to have good ideas — but it's better to be able to sell them. 

With just five days left until mid-term elections, Republicans and Democrats alike going to be making lots phone calls and knocking on lots of doors, trying to reach out and talk to undecided voters — or as they’re called in polling circles, “persuadables.” That little semantic shift that reveals how desirable these voters are and what lengths a campaign will go to in order to get them. 

But who are these persuadables? And what exactly do they need to be persuaded?

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's expected announcement of billions of dollars in federal grants for high speed rail today is beginning on a sour note. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced yesterday that he is stopping construction of an $8.4 billion Hudson River rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York. Citing billions of dollars of expected cost overruns, Christie says his "decision is final." This comes after LaHood made a personal appeal to Christie, and negotiations between the Obama and Christie administrations.

With Republicans running against President Obama's stimulus, an issue that's resonated with voters, LaHood's announcement comes at a questionable time. There will be events in Iowa, Michigan, California. There's also money for Connecticut and Florida. These are all states with close races. How is this going to affect the midterm elections?

This week, NPR senior correspondent Juan Williams was fired, after saying on "The O'Reilly Factor" that he was fearful when seeing passengers dressed in Muslim garb aboard airplanes.

We're in the top of the ninth in the midterm election season, so it's time for the two parties to send in some pinch hitters. From Michelle Obama to Bill Clinton to Sarah Palin, Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich takes a look at where the big names will be campaigning this weekend.

The NAACP and the Tea Party are feuding again. The civil rights organization has released a report called "Tea Party Nationalism" that has renewed accusations that the Tea Party groups “have given platform to anti-Semites, racists and bigots.” Tea Partiers are again disputing that claim.

A textbook distributed to Virginia's fourth graders states that African Americans served in the Confederate Army by the thousands. The book, "Our Virginia: Past and Present" was distributed for the first time last month to outcry from parents and educators.

Are there limits to the kinds of problems humans are capable of solving?

It can certainly seem like it. The conflict in Afghanistan rages on, the schools keep failing, the world is warming up. We throw ideas at these problems, we dream up fixes, we try new cures, yet the problems continue. The conflict rages on. The kids keep dropping out. The hurricanes get stronger. It’s enough to make you throw up your hands and wait for the end times.

The Navajo reservation spreads across sandstone and sky, covering almost 30,000 miles in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.  

When Election Day comes this November 2nd, and the citizens of the Navajo Nation will file into chapter houses to vote, they'll find something historic on the ticket.  

Ever since April 15th, when Tea Party groups emerged around the country, the public has been hearing a lot about what—and at whom—Tea Party anger is directed. But as America heads into the midterms with dozens of candidates endorsed by local Tea Party groups on the ballot, it's time to take a look at what the Tea Party wants.

In other words, without a national party structure or official spokespeople, what is the best way to identify common planks of a Tea Party platform?

Matt Kibbe joins the show to discuss that question. He’s the president of conservative political group FreedomWorks, and the author of a book called "Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto."

Shares of financial companies dropped yesterday on concerns about how reviews of home-foreclosure practices will affect their balance sheets. Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for our partner, The New York Times, has been looking at analyses of how hard the blow may be for banks, and how long it might last.

Cameron Todd Willingham was executed by the state of Texas in 2004. He was tried, convicted, and executed by lethal injection for setting fire to his home and killing his three young daughters, on December 23, 1991.

But forensic investigators have called the facts of the case into question – most notably whether the fire was arson, or an accident. (Willingham maintained his innocence to the very end, passing up a chance to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.)

At 26, Danielle Evans is already the kind of writer who makes other writers jealous. She's still fresh from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, but she's already been chosen – twice –  for The Best American Short Stories, and both Salman Rushdie and Richard Russo have praised her work. There's already a lot of buzz around her new book, a collection of eight short stories called “Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self.” She joins us to talk about the challenges of being a young black writer in a world that's not over race, but may be over talking about it.

Haitian American novelist Edwidge Danticat has been busy, of late.  She has two new books hitting bookstores this fall: Eight Days is a children's book about a boy trapped in the rubble after the earthquake in Haiti, and Create Dangerously is a book of reflections on the task of the immigrant writer.

In the 80's, the infamous McMartin Preschool sexual abuse trial ignited a hysteria about child sexual abuse. The McMartin trials never found anyone guilty, however, and several of the children, now adults, have come forward, saying no molestation ever happened. Across the nation, though, tens of thousands of people became convinced that they had repressed – and recovered – memories of awful abuse.

Meredith Maran, a journalist and author, found herself caught up in it.  She began to believe that her own father had molested her, and at age 37, she accused him.  Ten years later, she realized that he was innocent and recanted.  But it was almost too late.

Snooki did not invent celebrity – and chances are she won't break it either.

That's according to Professor Fred Inglis, author of "A Short History of Celebrity." Inglis is a cultural historian, and he takes the long view on our fascination with the likes of Tiger Woods, Marilyn Monroe and Angelina Jolie. Over the past 200 years, says Inglis, it has become easier and easier to live vicariously.