From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

(CNN) – Two days after Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh shocked fellow Democrats with his decision not to run for reelection, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine pledged that the party will field a top-flight candidate to defend the seat.

"We're going to have a marquee candidate in Indiana," Kaine told CNN's Kiran Chetry on American Morning on Wednesday. "There isn't any reason for Democrats to walk around with sad faces."

Read the rest of this entry »

[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/16/obama.nuclear.art.gi.jpg caption="President Obama speaks during a visit to an IBEW training facility in Lanham, Maryland, on Tuesday."]

Washington (CNN) - President Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees Tuesday for two nuclear reactors to be built in Burke County, Georgia.

No new nuclear power plants have been built in the United States in three decades.

The new reactors are to be part of an expansion of an existing nuclear facility near Augusta, Georgia, operated by Atlanta-based Southern Co.

The loan guarantees will help create 3,500 on-site construction jobs and 850 permanent operations jobs, administration officials claimed. The reactors will help provide power to over 550,000 homes and 1.4 million people, it said.

"This is only the beginning," Obama said during a visit to an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers training facility in Lanham, Maryland. "We'll continue to provide financing for clean energy projects ... across America."

The president acknowledged that construction of new nuclear facilities will meet with some political resistance. Nuclear development has traditionally been opposed by more progressive elements of the Democratic Party. FULL STORY

First, he was a popular Democratic governor in a red state. And then a popular two-term senator in D.C.

But now, Indiana Democratic Senator Evan Bayh says he's done with Congress. Is it really so bad inside the Beltway that it's worth leaving office?

We figured the best person to ask is Sen. Bayh himself. He joined us live on Tuesday's American Morning.

Read more: Bayh won't seek re-election

It was a battle of the titans over terrorism. Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney are trading jabs across the Sunday morning airwaves.

The two men clashed on everything from the likelihood of another 9/11 to how the Obama administration handled the failed Christmas Day bomb plot. The two men did agree on one thing – the former vice president praised the current surge in Afghanistan.

And it's not just the vice presidents of past and present airing their differences.

Senator John McCain is trading jabs with former Republican Congressman J.D. Hayworth, who will announce today he's running for the Senate seat McCain has held for more than two decades. Our Casey Wian has the report.

Read more: Hayworth to challenge McCain

With a slew of lawmakers suddenly retiring, the mid-term elections could be the perfect storm for Republicans trying to make a bigger dent in the Democratic majority.

31 seats in the House will be up for grabs. 13 belong to Democrats and 18 to the GOP. But anti-incumbent sentiment is the real wild card and that's bad news for Democrats. Our Brianna Keilar is following the story for us.