White House Operating in "I Get it" Mode
"It went very well," Mr. Obama said of the meeting between Republicans and Democrats. "In fact, I understand that McConnell and Reid are out doing snow angels on the South Lawn together."
While calling for bipartisanship and a "substantive discussion" on health care reform, the president has also said he expects all parties to move the process forward. "There's got to be some give from their side as well," he said.
Yet Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner are skeptical, saying after the meeting that "It's time to scrap the bill and start over."
The gridlock in Washington is no laughing matter, says CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante, because polls show the public is disgusted with the lack of progress.
Mike Allen, chief White House correspondent for Politico.com, said on CBS' "The Early Show" today that stories about Mr. Obama getting his groove back will have to be put on hold for now, and not for want of White House's efforts to make all parties come together.
"Republicans do not want to get rolled or cornered by this president, as they did in that Q&A session in Baltimore," Allen told "Early Show" anchor Harry Smith. "And Democrats aren't even in the same page. In this meeting — in front of the Republicans — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she disagreed with the president about some of the tax measures in his jobs bill. So we have seen an emerging plan for the president to come back, but it's not sure that it's all going to fall together."
Allen said Mr. Obama has been busy reaching out to Republicans, to the press, and to business (including comments in Bloomberg Business Week about bonuses for "savvy" Wall Street bankers, where he says he won't "begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.").
Allen says in these ways Mr. Obama is trying to demonstrate that he get — and hold — a coalition together, "not because of what the Republicans are going to do or because of their ideas, but so that the people who voted for them, the Independents, the Democrats, will say 'Yes, that's who we voted for, that's what we hoped Obama would do.'"
In addition to Mr. Obama's Business Week interview (in which he says he is also shocked by the fact that some baseball players are paid even more than Wall Street bankers and still don't make it into the World Series), David Axelrod was on C-Span trying not to marginalize or ridicule members of the Tea Party Nation, saying politicians need to understand their frustration.
"The administration is in an 'I get it' phase here," Allen said. "They want to connect with the country. They're convinced that their biggest danger in November is not joblessness but the toxic attitude toward Washington. All these things we're seeing are aimed at fixing that."
It's Washington's take on a Biblical proverb: Politician, heal thyself.