David Plouffe: First Biden Meeting ‘Confirmed What We Suspected’

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:

In addition to fascinating insights into President Obama's thinking in not choosing Hillary Clinton as his running mate, the new memoir written by his campaign manager has an anecdote that's likely to feed perceptions of Vice President Joe Biden's well-known propensity for going on — and on. Literally.

David Plouffe writes that in their initial meeting with Biden to discuss a spot on the ticket, he and senior Obama adviser “couldn't get a word in edgewise.”

“The [first] meeting started with Biden launching into a nearly 20-minute monologue that ranged from the strength of our campaign in Iowa ('I literally wouldn't have run if I knew the steamroller you guys would put together'); to his evolving views of Obama ('I wasn't sure about him in the beginning of the campaign, but I am now'); why he didn't want to be VP ('The last thing I should do is VP; after 36 years of being the top dog, it will be hard to be No. 2'); why he was a good choice ('But I would be a good soldier and could provide real value, domestically and internationally'); and everything else under the sun. Ax and I couldn't get a word in edgewise,” Plouffe writes, in an excerpt published by Time magazine.

Plouffe continues: “It confirmed what we suspected: this dog could not be taught new tricks. But the conversation also confirmed our positive assumptions: his firm grasp of issues, his blue collar sensibilities and the fact that while he would readily accept the VP slot if offered, he was not pining for it.”

What about Joe? Much work remains for Dems after Finance vote

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports:

All eyes are on the Senate Finance Committee this morning, where there have not yet been any surprises.

But Republicans are circulating snippets from an interview conducted by Don Imus of Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut who caucuses with Democrats. He's one of the 60 votes Democrats will need to pass a sweeping reform bill.

In a reminder that once the Finance Committee passes its bill today, there is still a very long road for health reform, Lieberman told Imus he doesn't support the Baucus bill and he thinks President Obama is trying to do too much.

“I've been saying for a couple of months now that I'm concerned, that I'm concerned that there's a danger that we're trying to do too much here and the president is trying to do two good things. But doing them at once in the middle of a recession may be hard to pull off,” Lieberman said, according to a transcript circulated by Republicans.

He went on: “And the two good things are to bend the cost of health care down by changing a lot of the ways health care is delivered. The second thing is to cover some of the people, millions of people, who are not covered with insurance. So, this puts us in the position where you say, on the one hand, what we're about to do in adopting health care reform will, will reduce the cost of health insurance from what it would otherwise be and the other hand you say, oh incidentally, we're going to raise your taxes or cut your Medicare to the tune of $900 billion or a trillion. And people are beginning to think that maybe they'd do better holding on to what they have now.”

Lieberman's statement underscore the perilous situation for Democrats who will take the Baucus bill and try to marry it with what the HELP Committee passed in July. They will have to attract Lieberman's vote on one end of the spectrum. And only the votes of more liberal senators who think the Baucus bill does not go far enough toward universal coverage. Only one Democrat, Sen. Roland Burris of Illinois, has said he won't vote for a bill that lacks a public option.

“The inclusion of a public option as a central component to any healthcare reform legislation is the only way to create meaningful competition with the insurance companies, and in turn, bring down costs and improve quality of care for the people of Illinois and all Americans,” said Burris on the Senate floor recently.

But other liberals, like Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia have pledged to do their best to force a public option and affordability votes on the Senate floor.

It's hard to square those pledges with changes to mollify Lieberman and other moderates, who opposes a public option.

Wiggle room on the public option could come in the form of wordplay. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose job it will be to marry the HELP and Baucus Finance Committee bills, has said there are different variations of a public option, even suggesting that the series of non-governmental co-ops envisioned by the Baucus bill could substitute for the public option.

But where it comes to affordability for people who currently have health insurance, there is less wiggle room. And there is also the undeniable fact that the Baucus bill does not insure every American.

“The bill before us still falls short of what people need and what people expect from us,” said Rockefeller during today's Finance Committee markup.

“It is not enough,” Rockefeller said. “Universal coverage has always been the goal”

He'll have to swallow his reservations and support the Baucus bill in the committee vote later today if he wants to make changes on the Senate floor in the future.

Ownership Society: What happened to health care’s new momentum?

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:

Fired up and ready to go — that’s all well and good. But weren’t we supposed to be there by now?

Here’s the thing about the return to a campaign-style push: The campaign was supposed to be over, and President Obama already won.

And the longer this goes on, the less it looks like he’s winning again. (The other side may or may not have met inflated crowd estimates in Washington, but that’s an army that can mobilize.)

Yet another critical week begins with yet another reality check — and, after last week’s Joint Session of Congress, one fewer big weapon in trying to turn it around.

The case gets personal: “I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails,” President Obama said on “60 Minutes” Sunday, per ABC’s Jake Tapper. “That doesn’t work. You know, I intend to be president for a while, and once this bill passes, I own it. . . . I’m the one who’s going to be held responsible.”

That’s a sentiment Republican leadership may not dispute (aside from the “president for a while” part).

The speech is behind him, and yet: “Bottom-line views on health care reform have stabilized but failed to improve since President Obama addressed the nation, leaving him with a continued challenge in selling his plan to a public that remains skeptical about its benefits and costs alike,” ABC Polling Director Gary Langer writes of the new ABC News/Washington Post poll, taken in the days after the president’s Wednesday’s speech last week.

“Obama shows some improvement. He’s stanched his losses, shored up his base and gained on a few specifics. But his speech was no game-changer: Americans in this ABC News/Washington Post poll divide by 48-48 percent on his handling of the issue and by 46-48 percent on the reform package itself, both essentially the same as their pre-address levels.”

“Bottom line: right now, voters are almost exactly where they were before the speech,” per ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“And on the crucial what’s in it for me questions, for people who have health insurance, there’s no real progress after the president’s speech,” Stephanopoulos said on “Good Morning America” Monday. “If that public option goes away, real evidence that support for the package goes up.”

What else has he got up his sleeve? “As Congress begins its second week back from August recess, the playing field is virtually level: Americans remain almost deadlocked in their opinion of the Democrats’ health-care initiative, with 46 percent in favor of the proposed changes and 48 percent opposed,” Jon Cohen and Dan Balz write in The Washington Post. “There is also a clean split on Obama’s handling of the issue, with 48 percent approving and the same number disapproving. But since mid-August, the percentage ‘strongly’ behind the president on health care has risen to 32 percent, evening out the intensity gap that has plagued him on the subject.”

Why Tea Parties matter: “This August’s town-hall fury wasn’t just about the details of health care. Neither were the anti-Obama protests that crowded Washington over the weekend,” Ross Douthat writes in his New York Times column. “They were about the Wall Street bailout, the G.M. takeover, the A.I.G. bonuses, and countless smaller examples of middle-income Americans’ ‘playing by the rules,’ as [Frank] Luntz puts it, ‘and having someone else benefit.’ The bad news for Democrats is that actually passing a health care bill could further enflame these anxieties.”

Why else they matter: “The ability to channel the wide-ranging frustrations expressed by speaker after speaker may determine whether beleaguered conservatives will be able to create a movement rivaling that which liberals used to help power Democrats back into the majority in the 2006 congressional elections and Barack Obama into the White House last year,” Kenneth P. Vogel and Alex Isenstadt write for Politico.

Speaking of ownership: It’s the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, and President Obama is marking it by focusing on the financial crisis in a speech in New York.

Per the White House: “In the afternoon, the President will deliver a major speech on the financial crisis at Federal Hall. He will discuss the aggressive steps the Administration has taken to bring the economy back from the brink, the commitment to winding down the government’s role in the financial sector and the actions the United States and the global community must take to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.”

Is the public buying it? “One year after Wall Street teetered on the brink of collapse, seven out of 10 Americans lack confidence the federal government has taken safeguards to prevent another financial industry meltdown, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll,” the AP’s Jim Kuhnhenn reports. “Even more — 80 percent — rate the condition of the economy as poor and a majority worry about their own ability to make ends meet. The pessimistic outlook sets the stage for President Barack Obama as he attempts to portray the financial sector as increasingly confident and stable and presses Congress to act on new banking regulations.”

“One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a series of federal interventions, the government is the nation’s biggest lender, insurer, automaker and guarantor against risk for investors large and small,” Edmund L. Andrews and David E. Sanger report in The New York Times. “Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the nation’s economy — 26 percent — than at any time since World War II. The government is financing 9 out of 10 new mortgages in the United States. If you buy a car from General Motors, you are buying from a company that is 60 percent owned by the government.”

No new proposals, but new urgency: “Obama will use the backdrop of Federal Hall in New York City to try and revive efforts at revamping market regulations. The president will urge the financial community to support that goal and he will emphasize the need for global coordination on financial oversight, according to an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity,” per Bloomberg’s Nicholas Johnston.

“This address is to kindle support for regulatory reform that digs deep into the culture of corporate America, including his belief that corporations need to observe greater responsibility and executives need to trim [exorbitant] salaries and bonuses,” per ABC’s Ann Compton.

“The president will tell Wall Street not to misread this moment, with the financial system stabilizing. He does not want them to return to the days of reckless excess,” ABC’s Jake Tapper reported on “GMA” Monday.

“Obama will try to retake the initiative, capping other recent efforts in which top government officials have emphasized improvements in the economy and made the case anew for rewriting the nation’s financial rulebook,” Brady Dennis reports in The Washington Post. “He will urge members of the financial community ‘to take responsibility, not only to support reforming the regulatory system but also to avoid a return to the practices on Wall Street that led us to the financial crisis,’ an administration official said Sunday.”

The DNC marks the occasion with a Web video featuring commentary on how bad it all might have been: “Lest we forget.”

Fueling skepticism: “The government handed out stimulus money far more slowly this summer than it had in the first weeks after the massive economic recovery plan started, even though President Obama and other members of his administration had vowed to hasten that aid,” USA Today’s Brad Heath reports. “In the 101 days after Obama signed the stimulus package in mid-February, the government allocated an average of more than $1.3 billion a day to new grants and projects. Since then, that pace has fallen to an average of about $1 billion a day, a drop of about 25%, according to federal agencies’ financial reports, current through Sept. 4.”

Back on health care, the public option continues what looks like a long march into oblivion.

The Boston Globe’s Lisa Wangsness: “Leading moderates in both parties retreated further from the government-backed health insurance option yesterday, echoing the argument President Obama made last week that the issue had been overblown and that alternatives, such as private nonprofit cooperatives, might be acceptable.”

If this is about getting even a single GOP vote: “I urged the president to take the public option off the table,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

The choice ahead: “The fate of the Obama health-care initiative could rest in large part with some members of his party’s left wing, who threaten to let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Bloomberg’s Al Hunt writes. “In the end this is probably a bluff. If not, they will blow an opportunity that will take them years to recoup.”

Said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. (offering the prevailing view in House Democratic leadership): “There will be some threats, but ultimately most liberals will go along.”

Trigger-happy? “I can support potentially a fallback [public option], but only if the private sector is allowed and given a great opportunity to get this right,” Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” “I believe they can.”

Snowe sounding similar themes: “We’ll be using the co-op as an option at this point, as the means for injecting competition into the process,” Snowe said.

But does that get them in the clear? “The president’s apparent flexibility on the public insurance option does appear to have assuaged some centrist Democratic Senators on a key issue. But these Democrats remain resistant — particularly over the price tag, including how much reform will cost the government and what it will cost taxpayers,” David M. Drucker and Emily Pierce report for Roll Call.

This is less than a dime, even: “I want to make sure it’s not going to add 1 cent to the deficit,” said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

Robert Samuelson makes the case for intellectual honesty: “Obama’s selling of ‘reform’ qualifies as high-class hucksterism, but in fairness, many conservative opponents match or exceed his exaggerations and distortions with low-class fear-mongering.”

One big reason why this all should still take a while — and why it’s still going to be messy, every step of the way:

“Obama seems to lack one item that most presidents find helpful to have in their White House tool box: Fear,” Politico’s Ben Smith writes. “On the left and on the right, interest groups and members of Congress have been eagerly enjoying the rewards — publicity, negotiating leverage — of challenging the president or dissenting from his policies. . . . The practice has been encouraged by this president’s own intellectual and political style — a preference for negotiation, combined with a disinclination toward drawing bright lines about his own bottom line.”

How about the docs? “This time, the voice of America’s doctors is on the other side — working not to defeat President Barack Obama’s proposals but to get them enacted into law,” Tribune Co.’s Kim Geiger and Tom Hamburger report. “And among the many reasons for the AMA’s historic shift is one practical consideration: Obama’s plan promises to provide millions of government dollars to help millions of patients pay their doctor bills.”

New ad Monday from Americans United for Change — a five-figure buy on DC cable. Political Consultant: “Congressman, as your political consultant…I’m sorry you lost… I was wrong. Turned out the voters hated the strangle hold the insurance companies have on health care.. raising premiums…cutting off people with pre-existing conditions… making health care decisions instead of doctors. And they didn’t much like the millionaire insurance CEO’s you were hanging with either. Guess your vote against health insurance reform turned out to be bad politics.”

More fallout for Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.: The House is still planning a floor vote condemning Wilson’s “you lie” comment — unless Wilson changes course and issues a formal apology on the House floor early this week.

“Rep. Joe Wilson said Sunday that he is through apologizing for shouting ‘You lie!’ at President Obama during a health care speech before Congress last week,” ABC’s Russell Goldman reports. “Wilson told Fox News that he apologized to the president Wednesday and would not apologize again on the floor of the House, despite threats from Democrats to censure him.”

Pressure back home: MoveOn.org is planning a protest Monday evening at Wilson’s district office in West Columbia, S.C. From the e-mail that went out to members: “We need to show Rep. Wilson that South Carolinians want solutions, not name calling, in the health care debate. He has to hear from us that we want Congress to enact President Obama’s health care plan, including a strong public option, right away.”

Quite the troika to defend (sort of) President Obama, on Afghanistan: “We have reached a seminal moment in our struggle against violent Islamist extremism, and we must commit the ‘decisive force’ that Gen. McChrystal tells us carries the least risk of failure,” senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., write in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

“We believe that the short-term political reaction from Congress to any increase in troop numbers, no matter how small or large, will be essentially the same. The key question is whether the increase is substantial enough to have a decisive effect on the course of the war within the next 12 to 18 months. If we are to send more of our brave men and women in uniform into harm’s way, we should do so in a way that carries the greatest probability of success.”

Fun in the family tree…. The Boston Globe’s Farah Stockman, reporting from Kogelo, Kenya: “Now that Obama has moved to the White House, expectations of financial benefit have grown even greater in this tiny hamlet where water is still delivered to thatched huts on the backs of donkeys. ‘There are still those who are waiting for him to send millions,’ said Nicholas Rajula, a Kogelo businessman.”

Sen. Ted Kennedy’s memoir, “True Compass,” is in bookstores this week.

“He really respected people who stuck at it, and kept going, no matter what their station in life,” Ted Kennedy Jr. told ABC’s Diane Sawyer on “GMA” Monday.

Said Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.: “You know the movie, ‘The Bucket List?’ He accomplished everything he really wanted to accomplish the last year.”

“They were amazing moments,” Ted Jr. said.

The Kicker:

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Waterloo!” — Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., speaking at the Tea Party rally in Washington.

“I intend to be president for a while.” — President Obama, on “60 Minutes.”

For up-to-the-minute political updates check out The Note’s blog . . . all day every day.

Ownership Society: What happened to health care’s new momentum?

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:

Fired up and ready to go — that’s all well and good. But weren’t we supposed to be there by now?

Here’s the thing about the return to a campaign-style push: The campaign was supposed to be over, and President Obama already won.

And the longer this goes on, the less it looks like he’s winning again. (The other side may or may not have met inflated crowd estimates in Washington, but that’s an army that can mobilize.)

Yet another critical week begins with yet another reality check — and, after last week’s Joint Session of Congress, one fewer big weapon in trying to turn it around.

The case gets personal: “I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails,” President Obama said on “60 Minutes” Sunday, per ABC’s Jake Tapper. “That doesn’t work. You know, I intend to be president for a while, and once this bill passes, I own it. . . . I’m the one who’s going to be held responsible.”

That’s a sentiment Republican leadership may not dispute (aside from the “president for a while” part).

The speech is behind him, and yet: “Bottom-line views on health care reform have stabilized but failed to improve since President Obama addressed the nation, leaving him with a continued challenge in selling his plan to a public that remains skeptical about its benefits and costs alike,” ABC Polling Director Gary Langer writes of the new ABC News/Washington Post poll, taken in the days after the president’s Wednesday’s speech last week.

“Obama shows some improvement. He’s stanched his losses, shored up his base and gained on a few specifics. But his speech was no game-changer: Americans in this ABC News/Washington Post poll divide by 48-48 percent on his handling of the issue and by 46-48 percent on the reform package itself, both essentially the same as their pre-address levels.”

“Bottom line: right now, voters are almost exactly where they were before the speech,” per ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

“And on the crucial what’s in it for me questions, for people who have health insurance, there’s no real progress after the president’s speech,” Stephanopoulos said on “Good Morning America” Monday. “If that public option goes away, real evidence that support for the package goes up.”

What else has he got up his sleeve? “As Congress begins its second week back from August recess, the playing field is virtually level: Americans remain almost deadlocked in their opinion of the Democrats’ health-care initiative, with 46 percent in favor of the proposed changes and 48 percent opposed,” Jon Cohen and Dan Balz write in The Washington Post. “There is also a clean split on Obama’s handling of the issue, with 48 percent approving and the same number disapproving. But since mid-August, the percentage ‘strongly’ behind the president on health care has risen to 32 percent, evening out the intensity gap that has plagued him on the subject.”

Why Tea Parties matter: “This August’s town-hall fury wasn’t just about the details of health care. Neither were the anti-Obama protests that crowded Washington over the weekend,” Ross Douthat writes in his New York Times column. “They were about the Wall Street bailout, the G.M. takeover, the A.I.G. bonuses, and countless smaller examples of middle-income Americans’ ‘playing by the rules,’ as [Frank] Luntz puts it, ‘and having someone else benefit.’ The bad news for Democrats is that actually passing a health care bill could further enflame these anxieties.”

Why else they matter: “The ability to channel the wide-ranging frustrations expressed by speaker after speaker may determine whether beleaguered conservatives will be able to create a movement rivaling that which liberals used to help power Democrats back into the majority in the 2006 congressional elections and Barack Obama into the White House last year,” Kenneth P. Vogel and Alex Isenstadt write for Politico.

Speaking of ownership: It’s the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, and President Obama is marking it by focusing on the financial crisis in a speech in New York.

Per the White House: “In the afternoon, the President will deliver a major speech on the financial crisis at Federal Hall. He will discuss the aggressive steps the Administration has taken to bring the economy back from the brink, the commitment to winding down the government’s role in the financial sector and the actions the United States and the global community must take to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.”

Is the public buying it? “One year after Wall Street teetered on the brink of collapse, seven out of 10 Americans lack confidence the federal government has taken safeguards to prevent another financial industry meltdown, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll,” the AP’s Jim Kuhnhenn reports. “Even more — 80 percent — rate the condition of the economy as poor and a majority worry about their own ability to make ends meet. The pessimistic outlook sets the stage for President Barack Obama as he attempts to portray the financial sector as increasingly confident and stable and presses Congress to act on new banking regulations.”

“One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a series of federal interventions, the government is the nation’s biggest lender, insurer, automaker and guarantor against risk for investors large and small,” Edmund L. Andrews and David E. Sanger report in The New York Times. “Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the nation’s economy — 26 percent — than at any time since World War II. The government is financing 9 out of 10 new mortgages in the United States. If you buy a car from General Motors, you are buying from a company that is 60 percent owned by the government.”

No new proposals, but new urgency: “Obama will use the backdrop of Federal Hall in New York City to try and revive efforts at revamping market regulations. The president will urge the financial community to support that goal and he will emphasize the need for global coordination on financial oversight, according to an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity,” per Bloomberg’s Nicholas Johnston.

“This address is to kindle support for regulatory reform that digs deep into the culture of corporate America, including his belief that corporations need to observe greater responsibility and executives need to trim [exorbitant] salaries and bonuses,” per ABC’s Ann Compton.

“The president will tell Wall Street not to misread this moment, with the financial system stabilizing. He does not want them to return to the days of reckless excess,” ABC’s Jake Tapper reported on “GMA” Monday.

“Obama will try to retake the initiative, capping other recent efforts in which top government officials have emphasized improvements in the economy and made the case anew for rewriting the nation’s financial rulebook,” Brady Dennis reports in The Washington Post. “He will urge members of the financial community ‘to take responsibility, not only to support reforming the regulatory system but also to avoid a return to the practices on Wall Street that led us to the financial crisis,’ an administration official said Sunday.”

The DNC marks the occasion with a Web video featuring commentary on how bad it all might have been: “Lest we forget.”

Fueling skepticism: “The government handed out stimulus money far more slowly this summer than it had in the first weeks after the massive economic recovery plan started, even though President Obama and other members of his administration had vowed to hasten that aid,” USA Today’s Brad Heath reports. “In the 101 days after Obama signed the stimulus package in mid-February, the government allocated an average of more than $1.3 billion a day to new grants and projects. Since then, that pace has fallen to an average of about $1 billion a day, a drop of about 25%, according to federal agencies’ financial reports, current through Sept. 4.”

Back on health care, the public option continues what looks like a long march into oblivion.

The Boston Globe’s Lisa Wangsness: “Leading moderates in both parties retreated further from the government-backed health insurance option yesterday, echoing the argument President Obama made last week that the issue had been overblown and that alternatives, such as private nonprofit cooperatives, might be acceptable.”

If this is about getting even a single GOP vote: “I urged the president to take the public option off the table,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

The choice ahead: “The fate of the Obama health-care initiative could rest in large part with some members of his party’s left wing, who threaten to let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Bloomberg’s Al Hunt writes. “In the end this is probably a bluff. If not, they will blow an opportunity that will take them years to recoup.”

Said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. (offering the prevailing view in House Democratic leadership): “There will be some threats, but ultimately most liberals will go along.”

Trigger-happy? “I can support potentially a fallback [public option], but only if the private sector is allowed and given a great opportunity to get this right,” Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” “I believe they can.”

Snowe sounding similar themes: “We’ll be using the co-op as an option at this point, as the means for injecting competition into the process,” Snowe said.

But does that get them in the clear? “The president’s apparent flexibility on the public insurance option does appear to have assuaged some centrist Democratic Senators on a key issue. But these Democrats remain resistant — particularly over the price tag, including how much reform will cost the government and what it will cost taxpayers,” David M. Drucker and Emily Pierce report for Roll Call.

This is less than a dime, even: “I want to make sure it’s not going to add 1 cent to the deficit,” said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

Robert Samuelson makes the case for intellectual honesty: “Obama’s selling of ‘reform’ qualifies as high-class hucksterism, but in fairness, many conservative opponents match or exceed his exaggerations and distortions with low-class fear-mongering.”

One big reason why this all should still take a while — and why it’s still going to be messy, every step of the way:

“Obama seems to lack one item that most presidents find helpful to have in their White House tool box: Fear,” Politico’s Ben Smith writes. “On the left and on the right, interest groups and members of Congress have been eagerly enjoying the rewards — publicity, negotiating leverage — of challenging the president or dissenting from his policies. . . . The practice has been encouraged by this president’s own intellectual and political style — a preference for negotiation, combined with a disinclination toward drawing bright lines about his own bottom line.”

How about the docs? “This time, the voice of America’s doctors is on the other side — working not to defeat President Barack Obama’s proposals but to get them enacted into law,” Tribune Co.’s Kim Geiger and Tom Hamburger report. “And among the many reasons for the AMA’s historic shift is one practical consideration: Obama’s plan promises to provide millions of government dollars to help millions of patients pay their doctor bills.”

New ad Monday from Americans United for Change — a five-figure buy on DC cable. Political Consultant: “Congressman, as your political consultant…I’m sorry you lost… I was wrong. Turned out the voters hated the strangle hold the insurance companies have on health care.. raising premiums…cutting off people with pre-existing conditions… making health care decisions instead of doctors. And they didn’t much like the millionaire insurance CEO’s you were hanging with either. Guess your vote against health insurance reform turned out to be bad politics.”

More fallout for Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.: The House is still planning a floor vote condemning Wilson’s “you lie” comment — unless Wilson changes course and issues a formal apology on the House floor early this week.

“Rep. Joe Wilson said Sunday that he is through apologizing for shouting ‘You lie!’ at President Obama during a health care speech before Congress last week,” ABC’s Russell Goldman reports. “Wilson told Fox News that he apologized to the president Wednesday and would not apologize again on the floor of the House, despite threats from Democrats to censure him.”

Pressure back home: MoveOn.org is planning a protest Monday evening at Wilson’s district office in West Columbia, S.C. From the e-mail that went out to members: “We need to show Rep. Wilson that South Carolinians want solutions, not name calling, in the health care debate. He has to hear from us that we want Congress to enact President Obama’s health care plan, including a strong public option, right away.”

Quite the troika to defend (sort of) President Obama, on Afghanistan: “We have reached a seminal moment in our struggle against violent Islamist extremism, and we must commit the ‘decisive force’ that Gen. McChrystal tells us carries the least risk of failure,” senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., write in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

“We believe that the short-term political reaction from Congress to any increase in troop numbers, no matter how small or large, will be essentially the same. The key question is whether the increase is substantial enough to have a decisive effect on the course of the war within the next 12 to 18 months. If we are to send more of our brave men and women in uniform into harm’s way, we should do so in a way that carries the greatest probability of success.”

Fun in the family tree…. The Boston Globe’s Farah Stockman, reporting from Kogelo, Kenya: “Now that Obama has moved to the White House, expectations of financial benefit have grown even greater in this tiny hamlet where water is still delivered to thatched huts on the backs of donkeys. ‘There are still those who are waiting for him to send millions,’ said Nicholas Rajula, a Kogelo businessman.”

Sen. Ted Kennedy’s memoir, “True Compass,” is in bookstores this week.

“He really respected people who stuck at it, and kept going, no matter what their station in life,” Ted Kennedy Jr. told ABC’s Diane Sawyer on “GMA” Monday.

Said Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.: “You know the movie, ‘The Bucket List?’ He accomplished everything he really wanted to accomplish the last year.”

“They were amazing moments,” Ted Jr. said.

The Kicker:

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Waterloo!” — Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., speaking at the Tea Party rally in Washington.

“I intend to be president for a while.” — President Obama, on “60 Minutes.”

For up-to-the-minute political updates check out The Note’s blog . . . all day every day.

ABC News? Rick Klein reports:

It's just possible that Republicans got their wish.

That “reset” that they've been calling for just might be taking place — albeit not entirely on terms of their choosing.

The narrative of President Obama's message gone flat — of a legislative push that came to shove and is left in chaos — is so well-established that it's primed for a rewrite.

That's where Wednesday night comes in: When the president enters the House chamber at 8 pm ET, he gets another big moment to rescue his biggest legislative initiative.

And it comes as Sarah Palin jumps back into the health care debate — maybe not an opponent Team Obama minds having just now.

For all the noise, the president returns to speak in front of a back-from-break Congress pushing a reform effort that's just about where it was a month ago. The “Gang of Six” is still meeting. There are still five bills pending.

Yes, he's sought new momentum before, again, and again. It hasn't crystallized into law — and yet it all hasn't crumbled into pieces, either.

As for the most-anticipated item . . . asked by ABC's Robin Roberts if the nation will learn whether he would sign a health care reform bill without a public option, the president said: “Well, I think what the country is going to know is exactly what I think will solve our health care crisis.”

Roberts asked twice whether the public option is a must-have part of the bill, but Obama didn't answer (and might that be an answer?): “There are some core principles that I've already laid out previously,” he said. “We're going to be providing a much more detailed plan,” Obama said on “Good Morning America Wednesday.

“There are some principles that, if they're not embodied in the bill, I will not sign it,” the president said, citing budget-neutrality (and not the public option).

Mistakes made? “I, out of an effort to give Congress the ability to do their thing and not step on their toes, probably left too much ambiguity out there, which allowed, then, opponents of reform to come in and to fill up the airwaves with a lot of nonsense –everything from this ridiculous idea that we're setting up death panels, to false notions that this was designed to provide health insurance to illegal immigrants,” the president said.

Where we (still) stand: Take out the row over the public option (yeah, we know) and you've got broad support for health care reforms — along with broad consensus that something will ultimately get done.

Confidence from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.: “Both leaders told the president that despite the difficult rough and tumble of the legislative process in the last few weeks, they are optimistic that both the House and Senate can pass health care reform legislation,” per ABC's Jake Tapper.

Said Reid (in a sentence where every phrase is worth unpacking): “We're going to do our very best to have a public option or something like a public option before we finish this work.”

Tapper, on “GMA”: “The White House is confident that if the American people understand what is in the bill, they will support it.”

And what happens if the president isn't clear on the public option Wednesday night? What happens in the sandbox if you still can't read all the lines in the sand?

“The White House set a high bar for the rare presidential address to a joint session of Congress, acknowledging the huge stakes and creating big expectations about the level of specificity Obama would provide,” the AP's Jennifer Loven reports.

And death panels live — as an argument advanced by you-know-whom: “Given such statements, is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by — dare I say it — death panels?” Sarah Palin writes in a Wall Street Journal column.

Palin continues: “Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans. Working through ?normal political channels,' they made themselves heard, and as a result Congress will likely reject a wrong-headed proposal to authorize end-of-life counseling in this cost-cutting context. But the fact remains that the Democrats' proposals would still empower unelected bureaucrats to make decisions affecting life or death health-care matters. Such government overreaching is what we've come to expect from this administration.” (If this was normal, what's abnormal?)

It's another Louisiana Republican offering the formal GOP response: “U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany will step into the national spotlight tonight to offer a rebuttal to President Barack Obama's speech on health care,” Jeff Moore writes in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser. “A retired cardiothoracic surgeon, Boustany has emerged as a leading figure in the health-care debate.”

Pre-buttal watch: House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are planning a joint news conference around lunchtime Wednesday (after McConnell attends Supreme Court arguments) to discuss “the need for responsible, bipartisan health care reform in advance of the President's address to a Joint Session of Congress.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., wants separate bills: “The president has a real opportunity, so take a deep breath, and step back. Not try to sell the country on one bill, with one solution with 1300 pages, but instead offer to work on good ideas, good approaches with the whole country, and to do it in a series of smaller bills,” Gingrich said in remarks fed out via satellite Wednesday morning.

Your new narrative: “While the month of August clearly knocked the White House back on its heels, as Congressional town hall-style meetings exposed Americans' unease with an overhaul, the uproar does not seem to have greatly altered public opinion or substantially weakened Democrats' resolve,” Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports in The New York Times.

“Critical players in the health care industry remain at the negotiating table, meaning they are not out whipping up public or legislative opposition. “Despite tensions between moderate and liberal Democrats, there is broad agreement within the party over most of what a package would look like.”

“Depending on how this plays politically, I think there is the foundation for building support for broader legislation,” said Dr. Mark McClellan, who ran Medicare and the FDA under President George W. Bush.

Time's Michael Scherer and Karen Tumulty: “This is what Barack Obama does. Back him into a corner, get the press in a frenzy, send his poll ratings plummeting, and the aging basketball player responds again and again with the same move: he delivers a major speech. And why not? It keeps working.”

What if August wasn't a disaster? “The more I think about the events in August, the more I think of professional wrestling,” The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder writes. “Lots of chair shots, blood and taunts, plenty of theater, but at the end of the day, everyone goes back to the locker room, changes out of their tights, and goes to the bar for a drink.”

The stakes: “Amid a summer of setbacks, President Obama's speech tonight before a joint session of Congress is a crucial moment that could determine whether he will be able to reestablish his presidency as what John F. Kennedy called the ?vital center of action' in the government,” Peter Nicholas reports in the Los Angeles Times.

The details: “The president is likely to make clear that a government-run insurance plan, known as the ?public option,' will not provide a level of subsidies that give it an unfair advantage over private insurers, according to aides familiar with the speech preparations,” Jonathan Weisman and Janet Adamy report in The Wall Street Journal. “Big questions are likely to remain. Mr. Gibbs said the speech wouldn't be ?accompanied by truckloads of paper and our own piece of legislation.' ”

Back to those questions: “But a Democratic leadership aide who sat in on an administration briefing Tuesday said that while Obama will offer support Wednesday for a public option, the president will not insist on it,” per The Hill's Mike Soraghan, Alexander Bolton and Sam Youngman. Said the aide: “I think he's going to be a bit noncommittal.”

“He will continue to equivocate like he and his staff have been doing recently,” an “informed congressional source” tells the New York Daily News' Kenneth R. Bazinet and Michael McAuliff.

Education time: “White House officials said that Mr. Obama would provide new details of what he would like to see in a final health care measure when he addresses Congress and the nation Wednesday, but that his chief focus would be on conveying to the public the need for a health care overhaul,” Carl Hulse and Robert Pear write in The New York Times.

The headline that should sound familiar: “Obama Speech Aims To Reenergize Effort.”

Yet, for context: “Two prominent House Democrats backed away from a public option Tuesday, providing at least some leeway for Obama,” The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery report. “Rep. Mike Ross (Ark.), a leader of the 52-member Blue Dog coalition, said he could no longer support a government-run plan, a shift from his position a few months ago that suggests the divide between liberal and conservative Democrats may have widened in the wake of raucous town hall meetings last month. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said he still supports a public option but could back legislation without it — a remark that ran counter to Pelosi's insistence Tuesday that a government plan ?is essential to our passing a bill.' “

From the other side: “We want him to know that his biggest supporters don't just like a public option, we absolutely require it in a health care bill, and would consider anything short of that not ?change we can believe in,' ” Adam Green, cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which organized a rally of Obama campaign staffers and volunteers outside the White House, tells The Boston Globe's Lisa Wangsness.

The PCCC is turning a letter signed by 400 former Obama staffers and 25,000 former Obama volunteers into a full-page ad that will run in The New York Times. A preview is HERE.

“We're not raising a white flag and surrendering on the item,” Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said of the public option, on ABCNews.com's “Top Line” Tuesday.

Knowing the limits: “With Bill Clinton as a guide, the evidence suggests that a good speech, in and of itself, won't do it,” ABC Polling Director Gary Langer writes. “One reason cuts to the challenge of presidential speechifying. These addresses to some extent represent an exercise in preaching to the choir, or at best to choir applicants; people who tune in tend to be favorably inclined, or at least willing to lend an ear.”

Advice from one who's gone here before: “I wouldn't even worry about the Republicans. I'd worry about executing,” Bill Clinton tells Esquire. “All we have to worry about is getting things done and doing them as well as we can. Don't even worry about the Republicans. Let them figure out what they're going to stand for. 'Cause as long as they're sitting around waiting for us to mess up, they don't have a chance.”

Oh, and “even though” . . . “Do I think he's doing the right thing, even though he's jamming a lot of change down the system? I do,” he said. “So there's a lot that's like my first year, but it's going to have a different ending — he's going to get health care reform.”

Advice from one who's been in the inner circle: “I am one of the millions of frustrated Americans who want to see Washington do more than it's doing right now,” said Steve Hildebrand, Obama's former deputy campaign manager who oversaw the campaign's field organization, tells Politico's Ben Smith. “I want change just as much as a majority of Americans do, and I'm one of the many Americans who are losing patience.”

“Less Spocky, More Rocky,” says Maureen Dowd: “In the absence of more vivid presidential leadership, the Democrats have reverted to their old DNA — self-destructive scrapping and spending. . . . Just as he let Hillary breathe new life into her faltering campaign in New Hampshire, Obama let the moribund Republicans revivify themselves in the slashing image of Limbaugh and Palin.”

“Mr. Obama has proved that he can be inspiring. But at this point, what he needs to inspire most of all is fear,” Bill Schneider writes for Huffington Post.

Remember when the Senate Finance Committee was the center of the universe? Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., wants finality before he loses relevancy: “The Senate Democrat overseeing negotiations on a bipartisan health care bill said he hopes to reach an agreement in principle on the legislation by the time President Obama begins his speech to Congress tonight,” USA Today's John Fritze reports.

New part of the deal? “Now, it seems, malpractice reform may be back in play,” ABC's Jonathan Karl reports. “The reason: Olympia Snowe, the sole Republican Senator who seems inclined to support Democrats on health care reform, wants it.”

A new Web video from the National Republican Senatorial Committee focuses on the public option: “Government-run health care. . . Democrats in disarray. . . . They pushed a public option. . . The American People rejected them.”

Annals of bipartisanship: The Bipartisan Policy Center and Better Health Care Together are sponsoring a forum at The Newseum in Washington Wednesday, starting at 11:30 am ET, focusing on “areas of agreement among political, business and labor leaders in the health reform debate.” Featured: Former senator Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; SEIU's Andy Stern; and Walmart's Leslie Dach.

Staying put: “Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will announce on Wednesday morning that he will remain as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, opting not to take over as chairman of the health panel,” per The Hill's Silla Brush, J. Taylor Rushing and Jeffrey Young. “Three Washington sources said Tuesday evening that Dodd has decided not to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.”

Fresh on the docket, for your new nine: It's Hillary, the argument. “The Supreme Court returns on Wednesday to consider ending long-standing limits on corporate and union spending in political campaigns — a move critics say could give big money more influence over U.S. elections,” Reuters' James Vicini reports. “Proponents say the case, which involves a movie critical of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, represents a basic issue of free speech. But a decision by the nation's highest court in the case could reshape the rules on how money can be spent in presidential and congressional elections, which already break new spending records with each political cycle.”

Shopping for a new cause, anyone? “President Obama's nominee to oversee bioterrorism defense at the Department of Homeland Security has been nagged since the early 1990s about her membership with a reading group that once described itself as Marxist,” the Washington Times' Amanda Carpenter reports. “Dr. Tara O'Toole, whose confirmation as undersecretary of science and technology is pending, came under fire from conservatives in 1993 when she revealed she belonged to a study group called the Northeast Feminist Scholars, originally known as the Marxist-Feminist Group 1.”

On Sen. Mel Martinez', R-Fla., last day, a rough start already for his successor: “Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek joined union workers Tuesday in blasting incoming Republican Sen. George LeMieux over his law firm's role in bringing in Mexican laborers to build a high-rise hotel and condominiums in Miami,” Beth Reinhard reports in The Miami Herald.

Latest Mass. maneuverings: “Republican Christy Mihos said last night that he is on the verge of dropping his campaign for governor to run for the US Senate, adding to a frenzied day of political activity as the field of contenders for the seat of Edward M. Kennedy came into sharper focus,” Frank Phillips reports in The Boston Globe.

“Amid the jockeying, a new name emerged from outside the sphere of politics: Alan Khazei, the 48-year-old cofounder of City Year, the nationwide community service program for young adults, said he was seriously considering jumping into the Democratic primary. Though Khazei lacks experience in elective office, he would have access to liberal donors, the ability to deploy an army of young campaign activists, and the possibility of claiming the Kennedy mantle of public service.”

Plus: Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., is making a play to the left — and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., is among the last big names on the fence, with former Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., out.

From the comeback files: “Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley was scheduled to tape the first broadcast of a new radio show he's launching from Palm Beach County. ?Inside the Mind of Mark Foley' was billed by the station as a program that ?will expose the inner workings of Washington D.C.' It will air for the first time on Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. on WSVU 960 AM,” per the Palm Beach Post's Michael C. Bender.

The Kicker:

“During these incredibly changing times, it's important that we hear the voice of a true Washington D.C. insider.” — WSVU-AM General Manager Chet Tart, announcing the hiring of Mark Foley.

“At this point, you know everything about me.” — Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, D-N.Y., at his weekly lecture at CCNY.

For up-to-the-minute political updates check out The Note's blog . . . all day every day.

ABC News? Rick Klein reports:

With Democrats seeking to use Sen. Ted Kennedy's passing to refocus efforts to pass health care reform, Republicans are signaling that their strong opposition to President Obama's plans haven't shifted.

Today on ABCNews.com's “Top Line,” Sen. John Barrasso, one of the Senate's two medical doctors, called Kennedy's death “a great loss,” but not something that has changed the political dynamics surrounding health care.

“It is a loss to the nation, but I will tell you, people are actually focused on what's in the health care bill — that's what's turning out at all of these town hall meetings,” said Barrasso, R-Wyo.

“What I'm hearing all across the country is 'kill the bill,' ” he said. “So when Nancy Pelosi and others may say that this is a contrived — these are contrived events, she may be saying that just to try to lessen the effect of them. These are hard working American people who are turning out, have great concerns about what the government is trying to do in terms of health care and taking over health care. There is opposition very loudly spoken all across the country to this. And if people don't realize that this is real, then I'd have to say Nancy Pelosi is absolutely out of touch with the rest of America.”

Barrasso has been traveling the country along with the Senate's other doctor, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., livestreaming the “Senate Doctors Show” and hosting town hall meetings on health care.

“People are focused on the details of the bill,” Barrasso told us. “I held up the House bill at a town meeting in Wyoming, and somebody yelled, 'burn it' because they know what the details are, then held up the Senate bill, all of the loose leaf papers that are together in that and somebody else said, 'Start a bonfire.' “

Click HERE to see the interview with Sen. Barrasso.

We also checked in with ABC's George Stephanopoulos about the political fallout in the wake of Kennedy's passing. He agreed with Barrasso's take, that the warm remembrances of Kennedy haven't changed the politics of health care.

Stephanopoulos' show this Sunday will be heavy on Kennedy legacy, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, reflecting on their friend and long-time colleague.

Click HERE to see the interview with George Stephanopoulos.

What Do You Think About Health Care Reform? Let Us Know…

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: As ABC News announced this week, Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson will be moderating a conversation with President Obama next Wednesday evening about health care reform.

The goal is to include divergent viewpoints from audience members and experts alike, challenging the president to answer questions from various stakeholders who agree and disagree with his proposals.

So what would you ask the president?

ABC News has been reading your questions submitted HERE and is partnering withDigg.com — engaging their 36 million user community — to learn more about what questions people have about how to mend the nation's health care system.

To submit a question, click HERE. Digg up the questions you like and bury the ones that just don't cut it.

Charlie and Diane will ask the president at least one of these submitted questions.
Tune in to ABC for “Questions for the President: Prescription for America” on Wednesday, June 24th at 10 pm ET, and “Nightline” at 11:30 pm ET, and see if your question was asked.

And we’re planning on asking some of the other questions the next day on ABCNews.com’s political Webcast, “Top Line.”