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All three White House correspondents covered the latest twists in the healthcare debate. Sen Jim DeMint, the Republican from South Carolina, went three-for-three as each one quoted his obstructionist plans: "If we are able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him." CBS' Chip Reid called DeMint's comment "incendiary" while NBC's Chuck Todd saw the President "back in campaign mode" as he "embraced the political fight."
ABC's Jake Tapper quoted Obama trying to portray opposition to healthcare legislation as opportunist rather than principled in an interview with PBS' NewsHour anchor Jim Lehrer: "There is a certain portion of the Republican Party that views this like they saw in '93, '94. So it was a pure political play, a show of strength by the Republicans that helped them regain the House."
CBS' Reid pointed out that both Republicans and Democrats are running ads, the GOP calling reform "a risky experiment" while the DNC pleads with its own senators that "it is time" for passage. Reid saw "the polls coming down, with the criticism just flowing in from Republicans and even some Democrats really nervous about the bill." Then he gauged the mood in the corridors of the White House: "They really are as confident as ever here."
As for those polls, George Stephanopoulos of This Week walked anchor Charles Gibson through the latest results from ABC News and Washington Post. "Obama is more popular than his policies," Stephanopoulos found, citing an overall 59% approval rating yet only 49% support for his healthcare plan. Not that these data offered any solace to Republicans: comparing the GOP to Obama on healthcare, the preference was 34% to 54%.
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