White House press secretaries don't usually get a round of applause in the briefing room, but Tony Snow's return today was different. He's back after learning five weeks ago that his colon cancer returned and that cancer cells are now attached to his liver. Five weeks ago, the outlook was grim from the White House and his friends. Today, after we sat for an interview that will air tonight on Nightly News, he said the day he made his condition public, he initially got it wrong, telling his own press office staff the cancer was inside his liver. As I said, the cancer is attached, which doctors have told him is an important difference. It's rare, I joked with him today, that a press secretary inadvertently makes something sound worse than it is!

Nevertheless, this is a serious time for Tony, his wife and three kids. He begins chemotherapy this Friday and faces an uncertain future. He's forced, he said, to look at life in small chunks of time rather than gazing out at a seemingly endless horizon.

Video: For the first time in five weeks, Tony Snow talks to reporters from a White House podium. This video is from the morning "gaggle" with reporters, which is usually off-camera.

A lot of people focus on the sometimes contentious relationship between the press and the press secretary, but today, it's useful to take a step back. The debates in Washington -- particularly over the war -- are vitally important. But so too is Tony's individual fight for survival, and that requires no skepticism or follow up from reporters.

Tony will now balance the difficult job of leveling with his kids about what he's going through and how it's affecting THEM with his desire to kick off a national conversation about living with cancer. He's got a survivor's story to tell and hopes to God he can keep on telling it.

On Nightly News Wednesday we reported how rare it was for the President to issue a body count -- the number of enemy killed. He said it at the Pentagon, and it struck me immediately that it may have been the first time I've heard him issue such a tally of enemy killed.

It's been reported that the President has always been keenly interested in learning what the numbers are. Thursday, during the White House briefing, Tony Snow was asked why he gave an enemy body count.

Snow replied, "There is quite often the impression -- and I've talked about it up here, that our people aren't doing anything, they're just targets. And I think there's a certain amount of unease in the American public because they hear about deaths but they don't hear about what's going on... And one of the things they're doing is they're fighting the bad guys. And as Gen. Chirelli said recently, the bad guys haven't won a single battle. For obvious reasons, going back to the Vietnam era, people are loathe to do body counts. But it probably is worth at least giving a general impression of relative battlefield success of what's going on, which is a great many members of al-Qaida in Anbar and also people who are committing acts of violence in Baghdad and elsewhere are dying or being captured as a result of these military activities."

As one of my colleagues pointed out, U.S. officials have never made clear how many enemies there are in Iraq, nor is it clear that in a counter-insurgency campaign the number of kills is the metric that indicates success. What is clear is that the President is eager to demonstrate progress to Americans who are increasingly pessimistic about the war.

For those of us on Air Force One this morning, our curiosity with today's stop was endless. We all peered out the window as the President's aircraft made its final approach toward Hanoi, the capital of communist Vietnam.

I was just a toddler when America was getting out of the war, so it was hard to connect emotionally to the passions and the pain of America's bloody chapter in Vietnam. Yet, descending the stairs of the plane, I took a deep breath in wondering how many young Americans reacted to the smell of Vietnam by questioning whether they would die there, never to smell home again.

On this hazy, humid day an American President was greeted as a friend, not an enemy. This war-torn capital has been transformed. Now it's the host of a regional economic summit. A billboard opposite Air Force One displayed names like Microsoft, Samsung, and Citigroup, sponsors all, of Vietnam's economic prosperity.

The motorcade took us past streets lined with onlookers -– some subdued, others eagerly waving to the American faces passing them by. Half the population here is under 25. Wi-Fi is a bigger deal than war.

Still, I couldn't get over the importance of the President's visit. Vietnam defined Bush's generation but he's been reluctant to talk about it both because he never fought in the war and because comparisons to Vietnam now creep into criticism of his war in Iraq. Aboard Air Force One, his press secretary, Tony Snow said, "This is not going to be a look back at Vietnam; it really is going to be a looking forward."

But when questioned by reporters, the President did look back.

In what the President called one of the most poignant moments of the drive, his motorcade wound past Truc Bach Lake where a young navy pilot named John McCain ditched his downed airplane and was captured.

"I guess my first reaction is history has a long march to it, and that societies change and relationships can constantly be altered to the good," Mr. Bush said.

It's not often the President chooses to speak to a crowd that includes his friends and his enemies. But that's what he's doing in 30 minutes at the United Nations General Assembly.

Today all of us will spend equal time listening to Bush and watching the crowd to see the likes of Iran's volatile President Mahmound Ahmadinejad reacting.

For all the build up, White House sources say there won't be any direct provocation. But it's still high drama. The two have openly challenged each other, and while Ahmadinejad would love to debate the President, Mr. Bush has refused to meet with him until Iran agrees to end its pursuit of a nuclear program.

The General Assembly has never been a friendly place for this President. He made the case for war against Saddam here and has since done little to hide his distrust of the international body.

But things have changed now. Critics say the President can't afford to isolate the U.N. He needs U.N. action to confront Iran, North Korea and to help in Iraq.

And so Bush will keep it friendly today. I'm told the major theme will be supporting moderate governments in the Middle East to combat a wave of Islamic extremism.

We'll hear from Ahmadinejad later.

Editor's note: You can watch President Bush's 11:30 a.m. ET speech at the U.N. live by clicking here.

Don't get me wrong, working inside the White House -- the West Wing even -- is an incredible honor. There is nothing like coming through the Northwest visitor's entrance and beholding one this country's great buildings and institutions.

Having said that, the press room here sorely needs a face lift. In fact, it's a dump. Reality is, while I respect my colleagues, there is not much common effort to show respect for the space we occupy. Example? About a year ago Tom Hanks donated a fancy espresso machine to the room and these days I wouldn't dare drink from it.

This is a glamorous job, but I sit in a booth the size of a broom closet. And my NBC co-workers and I work close enough to each other to do dental exams. I don't mean to go on a rant here, but the NBC seat in the first row of the briefing room has also been broken for a while. The briefing room is strewn with newspapers and garbage and has attracted rats in the past.

But all that aside, every gutting and renovation means a door closes on a chapter of history. This briefing room, which sits atop President Franklin Roosevelt's swimming pool (it's still there), dates back to 1970. Through war, scandal, and national tragedy this has been the scene of spirited questioning of White House officials including presidents and press secretaries. I think of those who have occupied this space before me at NBC including: Brokaw, Mitchell, Williams and Bloom... and I mourn the loss of this historic site.

And then I get over it. I realize in nine months this place will be cleaner, more modern and more spacious. Bring on the bulldozers.

Covering the White House, I talk a lot about issues like the war, or immigration, or the deficit impacting the president or his party. This week I had a chance to get outside Washington and talk to some voters for a piece I'm working on for Nightly News.

I've been studying our polls and wondering where and why Bush is losing Republican support. My producer Julie Holstein and I went to the Philadelphia suburbs where three Republican congressmen are trying to hold on to their seats in an area of upper income, socially moderate voters -- reliable Republican territory for years but a major battleground this fall. Pennsylvania is also the state with one of the most interesting Senate races in the country featuring Rick Santorum who trails badly in the polls in part because of his close association in voters minds with President Bush.

We found lifelong Republicans seriously considering voting for a Democrat this fall. The issues? The war, high gas prices, even the deficit. One voter I talked to made an impassioned point about how the president has missed the opportunity to launch a real effort to make America energy independent. Overall, I heard the feeling that the president has lost his way as a leader. Also, these voters are in the mood to penalize any member of Congress who acted like a rubber stamp for this president.

The Philly suburbs have been teetering toward the Democratic party for awhile. (The fact that Governor Rendell is on the ballot this fall also helps because he has a get-out-the-vote machine working in the suburbs.)

Lots going on in the world today, but we hope to get this piece on Nightly News tonight. By the way, send me your thoughts on the dynamic in local races where you live. I'm looking for other snapshots around the country that can tell the larger story about the political climate.

My team and I are also watching Bush's travels to Fort Belvoir today with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Wondering what kind of reception they'll get from the troops. More later.

Just back from the White House press conference with Nouri Al-Maliki and I'm struck by a couple of things: It was the Iraqi prime minister's first ever visit to the White House and yet the White House allowed just two questions from the American and Iraqi press. So many issues remained unaddressed. It would seem to me that the president would want a fuller airing of his views on a subject severely undermining his political status at home and U.S. policy abroad.

Here's what I would have asked: "Mr. President, you argued before the war that invading Iraq would bring stability to a vital region of the world and would create a new stage of Arab-Israeli peace. Yet today, sectarian violence in Iraq is killing 100 civilians a day in Baghdad; Democratic reform has produced Hamas and Hezbollah; U.S. policy has also created a defiant, resurgent Iran. Do you acknowledge fundamental misjudgments about the war and what do you do about them now?"

I sure would like to know the answer to that question.

The second thing I noticed was how subdued the president was. He did some cheerleading for Maliki and again promised U.S. support. But in tone, body language and actual language he made clear things are going poorly. He said that the U.S. must be nimble enough to respond to changes on the ground. What came through to me was frustration.

And how about Maliki's ability to dodge questions? He was asked his position on Hezbollah and flatly ignored it. He condemned Israel's bombardment of Lebanon, but never questioned Hezbollah. I wanted to ask him whether he thinks Israel has a right to exist.

Too bad they didn't think it was worth taking more questions.

Nothing motivates like a 36 percent approval rating in the polls. That appears to explain the president's expansive mood of late. You saw it in the press briefing today at the White House. Billed as a statement about the economy (it surged forward in the first quarter), it became a 35-minute press conference. The president was so eager to take questions (on everything from gas prices to Iran to voting rights) he called on one reporter twice! Not me. No, I received special treatment from the ebullient leader: when pressed on what his staff turnover said about what HE thinks he needs to do to turn his presidency around, he joked "I'm not going to hire you, if that's what you were suggesting." I was not. But he continued, "You can't pass the background check."

But seriously folks... today represented a new turn for the president, I think. New Chief of Staff Josh Bolten has ushered in an urgent charm offensive. The idea is to engage the press corps more often and more assertively. But it's not all style. Stay tuned for more turnover in the next couple of weeks and new policy direction, too. The president's proposals on lowering gas prices this week marked a new embrace of government intervention and environmental activism by this administration. Bush hasn't exactly gone green, but it's something.

This White House team may become more organized and assertive, but the president is still looking for the one thing that eludes him: a break.

It may sound strange, but the only way the President thinks he can forge any kind of relationship with Chinese President Hu Jintao is over a meal. When Mr. Bush went to China last fall, he said he wanted to spend more time getting to know what this enigmatic figure running a country of 1.3 billion people really thinks. Hu's response: Let's talk at dinner.

Fast forward to today's rather awkward White House meeting -- again the two leaders had their most heart to heart moments at lunch. The formal meetings, you see, are attended by too many aides. Even the one-on-one meeting has 12 people I'm told.

Today, most of Mr. Bush's job was keeping smoke from coming out of Hu's ears.

If you watched TV at all today, you saw a protester from the spiritual group Falun Gong slipped into the White House today as a reporter (she's been here before in fact) and proceeded to shout at Hu during his remarks. The gaffe was a major embarrassment for the White House and a major irritant to China. The Chinese negotiated every detail with the administration to make sure Hu was greeted as a full U.S. partner -- an equal on the world stage. And then this.

This was a visit about images today. The Chinese took care of that. Back home, the protester getting all the coverage in this country was never seen on Chinese television.

There's more than meets the eye to this latest White House shakeup. Of course, any administration sees turnover in year six, but this is no average second term. These changes are course correction and as one republican told me recently the changes would be more significant than people expected.

The big change is a subtle one: Karl Rove, the President's political guru and since last year deputy chief of staff will be losing some of his day to day duties as deputy to new chief of staff, Josh Bolten. The proximate cause, officials said today, was Bolten himself. He wanted his guy, a former Budget office aide Joel Kaplan, as his right hand man.

But Rove is not a guy who gives up his power easily. The move comes as he remains a leading target for critics who think the Bush team has lost its way (Katrina, Harriet Miers, Iraq).

What's perhaps more important is that Rove returns to doing politics in this all important election year. The President has told people he will sprint to the end of his term. But he won't run very fast if he loses control of congress. I spoke to numerous republicans today who were quite pleased that Rove was going back to what he does best: helping the President his party win elections.

But in the end, what does all this change mean? White House policy isn't changing. What they are looking for around here is a reboot - a second chance to start the second term.

A long, twisted, political relationship is over. Asked about the DeLay news today, the president didn't exactly gush over the loss of the "Hammer" on Capitol Hill. In fact, Bush seemed to talk beyond the troubled legacy DeLay leaves behind, insisting "our party will continue to succeed because we're the party of ideas."

The White House has always struggled to express the president's support for DeLay because, well, Bush doesn't really SUPPORT him, he's always endured him. DeLay has been a presidential ally even though Bush never much cared for him personally nor did he feel his style helped the party.

The president's carefully chosen words today reflect two realities: one, DeLay's move has now solidified the Abramoff affair's impact on the Republican party's already troubled 2006; two, Bush knows full well his problem-prone second term is equally to blame for the party's woes.

The upside is that the White House may find a new opening here. They are desperately looking to start the comeback and a DeLay exit combined with some additional changes in the White House may help them make the argument that there's a new look to the party running Washington.

The President makes a really important point: terrorists will emerge from Iraq defeated or emboldened. But are the terrorists really the problem? What would happen if they were defeated this week? Would a unity government immediately be formed? Isn't the sectarian violence real and not just the work of insurgents? Isn't there a longer, deadlier history here that the President is overlooking? Indeed, top U.S. commanders have said sectarian violence is outpacing the insurgency as the greatest threat.