Despite optimistic assessments from White House officials and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, media reports last night and this morning continue to paint the path toward healthcare reform as murky and getting murkier. The AP reports that "White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said they are '80 percent' in agreement on what a final version will include and are making progress." On Fox News Sunday, Gibbs went on to say, "We're still working on that last 20 percent." The New York Times says that Gibbs also "sought to put the best face on the missed timetable," and adds that White House aide David Axelrod "used the same phrase" as Gibbs "in noting progress on the bill." The Washington Post, meanwhile says that Pelosi defied "skeptics in her party" as she "vowed Sunday to overcome lingering obstacles and pass health-care reform in the House." The Speaker said on CNN, "When I take this bill to the floor, it will win."
Most stories and analyses, however, focus on what they cast as growing difficulties for the President's reform push difficulties that are said to arise not from GOP opposition, but from the President's Democratic allies. ABC World News reported that "with even some Democrats wavering in their support, the Senate is nearly certain to miss President Obama's deadline of passing it by August."
The Politico says Gibbs, Axelrod and Pelosi "did their best to sound upbeat," and remarks on "what a tough sell Obama-style health reform is proving to be for some in Congress -- particularly among moderates and fiscal conservatives in Obama's own party."
On its front page, the Financial Times says "divisions among US Democrats over healthcare widened on Sunday." The Washington Post cautions that "a health-care victory in the House this week would be a stirring moment" for the President, but "a defeat would be a devastating setback for Obama and Pelosi."
On NBC Nightly News, John Harwood said, "The toughest strategic call for the White House may be whether or not to cut bait on those bipartisan negotiations between Republicans and Democrats and try to do this with Democrats alone. Of course, that course has risks as well."
Bloomberg News adds "the biggest stumbling block in the House is objections from the Blue Dog Coalition." Likewise, The Hill says that "much of the cause for delay in the House is the reticence of fiscally conservative" Blue Dogs.
White House: "Cadillac" Health Plan Tax Idea "Intriguing" The Wall Street Journal reports, "A proposal to tax insurance companies on their most-expensive policies appears to be gaining momentum in Congress and the White House, as lawmakers search for politically acceptable ways to fund a health overhaul."
Asked on CBS's Face the Nation about proposals to levy a tax on "Cadillac insurance policies," Axelrod said, "The President actually was asked this the other day by Jim Lehrer and what he said was that this was, you know, that this was an intriguing idea to put an excise tax on high end health care policies like the ones that the executives at Goldman Sachs have the $40,000 policies."
Bloomberg News reports, "Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and police Sergeant James Crowley will probably join President Barack Obama for a beer within the next several days, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said." The "reaction to the remarks threatened to overtake the president's main message last week of overhauling the US health-care system, David Axelrod, Obama's senior adviser, said...on CBS's 'Face the Nation.'"
In blog entry in The Politico, meanwhile, Daniel Libit reports that "Gibbs told Brett Baier that 'I don't think the president has come down on one side or another' as to whether the arrest...constituted racial profiling." On Fox News Sunday, Gibbs also said, "I don't know if the President read the police report. I think the President was clear in discussing the fact that he did not know all the details of what had transpired in Cambridge."
ABC World News showed Gibbs saying, "Sergeant Crowley told the President that he was game. And I read that Professor Gates is the same way. So, hopefully we can get that done in the next several days."
Under the headline "After Arrest, Cambridge Reflects On Racial Rift," the Washington Post reports, "The town where a white police officer and a black scholar ignited a national conversation on race and law enforcement has started to open the dialogue that President Obama invited." The Post adds that "before summer's end, the mayor, district attorney and police officials will convene a forum to grapple with the controversy over the arrest," and that "the folks who live here acknowledge that the incident did not happen in a vacuum."
NBC Nightly News similarly reported, "Cambridge is known as one of the country's most liberal and progressive communities. Home of Harvard and MIT. A city that embraces diversity" and is "now trying to learn why a dispute between...Gates and...Crowley escalated into a national argument about race relations."
The Wall Street Journal notes that "Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons said Sunday that she had spoken to Messrs. Gates and Crowley, and that both wanted to move on." Simmons said on CNN, "Both men expressed an interest, a sincere interest to be at the table, to talk about this issue and to see how we can move this conversation forward."
On Fox News Sunday, the Weekly Standard's William Kristol said, "I think [the President] is an arrogant man, and he feels entitled to pass judgment on Cambridge cops or on pediatricians who allegedly are referring people to get tonsillectomies. The cops are stupid; the pediatricians, I suppose, are greedy and venal. He feels entitled, as president of the United States, to stand up there and pass these judgments."
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose term expires early next year, defended his handling of the bailout of the financial sector in what media reports termed an unusual town hall meeting in Kansas City. The Wall Street Journal says Bernanke "on Sunday said he engineered the central bank's controversial actions over the past year because 'I was not going to be the Federal Reserve chairman who presided over the second Great Depression.'" Bernanke "described himself as 'disgusted' with the circumstances that led him to rescue a couple of large firms, and called for new laws that would allow financial firms other than banks to fail without going into bankruptcy."
The New York Times reports in a front page story that Bernanke is "on a publicity campaign with a message: the central bank is here to help, and it is not as mysterious or menacing as people might think." Like a "political candidate on the campaign trail - indeed, his four-year term expires in January - Mr. Bernanke fielded questions from local residents and tried to rebuff charges that the Fed was either conspiring with big banks, stifling free-market capitalism or possibly doing both at the same time."
The Washington Post reports the Kansas City appearance was "part of a campaign by the Fed chairman to instill confidence in the economy and to position himself as a voice of calm leadership amid the financial crisis. Also, his term as chairman will end in January, and President Obama will decide in the coming months whether to reappoint or replace him."
Government Stake In Citigroup To Rise To 34% The Financial Times reports the US government "is poised to take a 34 per cent stake in Citigroup, increasing both its exposure to and influence over, the troubled financial group following Sunday's completion of a long-awaited $58bn share offering." The move "is a milestone in a financial crisis that has forced the US authorities to come to the rescue of some of the largest institutions in the country."
Government Guarantee Saves Financial Firms $24 Billion The Wall Street Journal reports a Journal analysis shows the "government's guarantee since November on new debt issued by financial firms such as Citigroup Inc. and General Electric Co. will save those companies about $24 billion in borrowing costs during the next three years." In the "second quarter alone, the eight largest issuers of corporate debt under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Term Liquidity Guarantee Program cut their interest costs by about $2.2 billion, increasing their profits and delivering an extra jolt to the stock market's two-week rally."
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The Politico reports that in her resignation speech yesterday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) fired a "blast" at the media, but "offered almost nothing about what she was planning to do next." The Hill adds that in her "winding speech," Palin "extolled her accomplishments and fulfilled promises as governor while taking swipes at the media and Hollywood" and "attempted to make a stance for the right to bear arms and hunt in Alaska against the 'second amendment circuses from Hollywood.'" Meanwhile, "Palin has yet to give a concrete answer to what she plans to do." The AP reports that Palin plans "to write a book and build a right-of-center coalition," and her "first order of business as a private citizen is to speak Aug. 8 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. She also wants to campaign for political candidates from coast to coast, and continue to speak her mind on the social networking site Twitter, one of her favorite venues to reach out to supporters." An analysis in the Washington Post says that the "first item on Palin's agenda may be to put her personal life in order."
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (D) yesterday announced that he will run for the Senate seat formerly held by President Obama, becoming the first major Democrat to join the open contest. The Sun-Times adds that despite "Giannoulias' closeness to Obama -- the president tried to shoot hoops with Giannoulias the morning of every major primary during his presidential candidacy for good luck -- the White House tried to recruit Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to run for the senate seat." The AP adds that Giannoulias "took a jab" at Rep. Mark Kirk (R) during his announcement, saying that his likely opponent "was offering to 'pledge reform with one hand while the other hand takes millions from corporate special interests and votes for the very policies that got us into this mess in the first place.'"
A poll released by the Boston Globe shows Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) trailing two potential GOP opponents in two-way matchups, but tied for the lead with Tim Cahill if that former Democratic official makes a bid as an independent. The poll of 545 adults taken July 15-21 shows Patrick and Cahill tied at 30% with Charlie Baker (R) at 20%. If Christy Mihos is the Republican, Patrick and Cahill tie at 31% apiece, and Mihos takes 18%. Without Cahill in the race, Mihos tops Patrick 41%-40% and Baker tops him 41%-35%.
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Jimmy Kimmel: "The President is busy trying to get his healthcare plan through Congress. I thought this was interesting. Obama pointed out that most other Western countries pay about half what we do for healthcare and get the same or even better outcomes, though opponents of the plan point out that people in those countries sometimes have to wait in line for care, which Americans...would never accept. Here, we only wait in line for stuff that's important, like iPhones and Grand Theft Auto 4."
Conan O'Brien: "This is big news. Yesterday, Chicago White Sox, pitcher Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game. ... And afterwards...he had a five-minute phone conversation with President Obama, which was very cool. ... Meanwhile, the losing pitcher got a two-hour phone call from Joe Biden. That's the punishment. That's his punishment."
Jimmy Fallon: "Did you guys watch 'Nightline' last night? President Obama said that since becoming President, he's gone from praying before bed to praying all the time. And it's always the same prayer: 'God, please don't let Joe Biden say something stupid today. Please.'"
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