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Both CBS and NBC assigned their White House correspondents--Bill Plante and Savannah Guthrie respectively--to Barack Obama's assessment of the Lame Duck 111th. NBC concentrated on the political optics of the legislation since the Democratic Party suffered its shellacking in November's midterm elections: Congressional correspondent Kelly O'Donnell summarized the lame duck agenda; and Meet the Press anchor David Gregory gave the President a thumbs up for his newly refound leadership skills.
As for the specifics of the legislation, two major new bills passed. ABC's Jonathan Karl covered the scaled-down healthcare funding for World Trade Center workers sickened by toxic fumes from the debris of the twin towers: the plan had been for a $7bn fund; the compromise called for $4bn. CBS' David Martin and ABC's Jake Tapper both covered the repeal of the Pentagon's 17-year-old Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell restrictions on gays in the military. Tapper revealed the faces of some of the closeted gays who had campaigned for repeal in the Kaycee Olsen Gallery's photographic exhibition by Jeff Sheng, which his colleague Bob Woodruff covered last May. Martin previewed the personnel policy changes the Pentagon will make to implement the repeal.
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