The Note: Lost Summer — New challenges crowd out health care push

By RICK KLEIN It’s nice to leave August behind — but what’s ahead that’s pleasant to see? On health care — we’re in a loop with no new input, churning through the same information, and watching the chances of bipartisanship evaporate. On national security — we’re seeing the typical battles fought anew, with the same players, and probably the same political outcomes. On Afghanistan — Obama’s war looks like Bush’s war once did, but the blame factor doesn’t make the choices ahead any easier. As the White House stay-cation continues, some unappealing options. And with foreign policy at the forefront again, they’re not the even the type of choices President Obama wants to have to make. “For Mr. Obama, who already ordered an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan this year, the prospect of a still larger deployment would test his commitment to a war he did not launch even as it grows more violent by the month,” Peter Baker and Dexter Filkins reports in The New York Times. “He already faces growing discontent among his liberal base, not only over the war but also over national security policy, health care, gay rights and other issues.”  “The report arrived at U.S. Central Command and NATO as four more troops, including two Americans, were killed today, closing out what was already the deadliest month in the war's history,” per ABC’s Nick Schifrin, Martha Raddatz, and Kirit Radia. “Since a surge of U.S. Marines and soldiers began fighting in early July, at least 150 international troops have died — nearly the same number killed in the first 27 months of the war, according to icasualties.org. The assessment comes at a time when U.S. officials fear much of the country is slipping out of control.”  Internal angst: “With tough battles ahead on health care, the budget and other issues, Vice President Joe Biden and other officials are increasingly anxious about how the American public would respond to sending additional troops,” McClatchy’s Nancy A. Youssef reports.  “Although President Barack Obama committed 21,000 new American forces to Afghanistan this year, officials are bracing for a request for even more. Obama would then face a buildup of troops there just as troop commitments in Iraq are easing or the risk losing the war he argued the U.S. had neglected,” per the AP’s Anne Gearan.  “Time to Get Out of Afghanistan,” reads the headline on George F. Will’s column. “The U.S. strategy is ‘clear, hold and build.’ Clear? Taliban forces can evaporate and then return, confident that U.S. forces will forever be too few to hold gains. Hence nation-building would be impossible even if we knew how, and even if Afghanistan were not the second-worst place to try,” Will writes.  (Flashback: “This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, August 23. “Clear, hold, build. They can't hold it because they can't stay there,” Will said. “And when they leave, the Taliban comes back. Therefore, what's the point in clearing? I think the American people are right about this.”)  “All quiet signs that when Congress returns to Washington in coming days, the unheard sounds of the distant war may become far louder on the political landscape there than anyone thought when those folks left town to discuss a different kind of pre-existing condition,” Andrew Malcolm blogs for the Los Angeles Times.  Whose war is it anyway? ” ‘War on terror’ — the Bush-era phrase that has disappeared at the Obama White House — appeared again on Monday,” the Washington Examiner’s Byron York points out.  Pushing back at former Vice President Dick Cheney (who can — and might — pop up whenever he wants to in any debate over national-security policies): “The world is coming together on this matter now that President Obama has taken the leadership on it and is approaching it in a slightly different way – actually a radically different way – to discuss things with other rulers to enhance the working relationships with law enforcement agencies – both national and international,” National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones, tells ABC’s Jake Tapper.  Jones said that “we are seeing results that indicate more captures, more deaths of radical leaders and a kind of a global coming-together by the fact that this is a threat to not only the United States but to the world at-large and the world is moving toward doing something about it.” President Obama is at the White House Tuesday, with a 1:15 pm ET briefing on H1N1 flu preparedness. He closes out his evening with a dinner celebrating Ramadan. Any more unpopular choices ahead? “By force of circumstances and by design, the president has promoted one policy after another that increases spending and centralizes power in Washington,” David Brooks writes in his New York Times column.  “The result is the Obama slide, the most important feature of the current moment. The number of Americans who trust President Obama to make the right decisions has fallen by roughly 17 percentage points. Obama’s job approval is down to about 50 percent. All presidents fall from their honeymoon highs, but in the history of polling, no newly elected American president has fallen this far this fast.” (The New Republic’s Gabriel Sherman: “It is an odd situation to say the least: David Brooks, prominent conservative, has become the most visible journalistic ally of arguably the most liberal president of his lifetime.”) Plan from here, on health care: “Democrats lost the month of August — not just in the polls and at town hall events but also within their own caucus,” Alex Isenstadt and Martin Kady II write for Politico. “The comeback for Democrats — if there is one — will begin in an all-important closed-door caucus meeting next week in the basement of the Capitol, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her top lieutenants will try to undo the damage of the August recess and convince their wobbly members that a vote for health care reform will not cost them their jobs in 2010.” They continue: “Leaders say their strategy is to convince members that nothing is set in stone and that they are more than open to negotiations. And they’re engaging in a softer sell, prioritizing health insurance reforms while pitching the public option as something that’s way, way down the road.” (Plus, backtracking on the public option? House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., “is advocating a ‘two step’ approach in which the most widely supported health insurance reforms, like coverage for pre-existing conditions, go into effect immediately, while the public option is framed as a distant step — something that would go into effect in 2013, only after benchmarks and pilot programs are studied.”)  (And what of the timeline for action? “We’re not going to make our guys walk off the cliff without seeing what the hell the Senate does,” said one House Democratic leadership aide.) Tracking the D’s: “Threats by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders to push health-care legislation through the Senate without Republican support may be undercut by some Democrats whose support they need,” Bloomberg’s Kristin Jensen writes. “Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson, ‘opposes using reconciliation,’ though he hasn’t ruled out voting for it, said spokesman Jake Thompson.”  Broader concerns: “Recent town-hall uproars weren't just about health care. They were also eruptions of concern that the government is taking on too much at once,” The Wall Street Journal’s Janet Adamy and Jonathan Weisman write. “That suggests trouble for the president and his party, and fears of losses in next year's midterm election are likely to shape the Democrats' fall agenda.”  Not good news: “Preventive services for the chronically ill may reduce health-care costs, but they are unlikely to generate the kind of fantastic savings that President Obama and other Democrats have said could help pay for an overhaul of the nation's health system, according to a study being published Tuesday,” Lori Montgomery reports in The Washington Post.  New to the airwaves: the RNC touts its “Seniors Bill of Rights” in a new TV ad launching Tuesday in Florida and on national cable: “Let’s agree in both parties that Congress should only consider health reform proposals that protect senior citizens,” RNC Chairman Michael Steele says in the ad. “For starters, no cuts to Medicare to pay for another program. Zero.” Plus, of course: “Prevent any government role in end-of-life care.”  Tracking bipartisanship: Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., made his views clear in the GOP radio address over the weekend, and now comes Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. “I had to rush you this Air-Gram today to set the record straight on my firm and unwavering opposition to government-run health care. And ask your immediate support in helping me defeat ‘Obama-care,’ ” Grassley writes in a fund-raising letter, per The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein. “The simple truth is that I am and always have been opposed to the Obama administration's plan to nationalize health care. Period.”  Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., to the AP’s Matt Gouras: “I talked to [Republican negotiators], and they all want to do health care reform. But the sad part is a lot politics have crept in. They are being told by the Republican Party not to participate.”  (Any reason left for talks with Republicans to extend past the state of Maine?) Limits of legacies: “I don’t want to see the county be guilted into a health care reform because of the passing — unfortunate passing of a great senator,” RNC Chairman Michael Steele said Monday on ABCNews.com’s “Top Line.”  Another call for a new strategy: “As the president and his administration figure out how to hit the reset button on health at the close of a bruising August, one option is to, at last, lay out exactly what Mr. Obama now wants in an overhaul package, and start selling and defending that,” Gerald F. Seib writes in his Wall Street Journal column.  Norman Ornstein defends the president’s approach: “The odds remain reasonable that a solid, if not dramatic, health reform bill can make it through this process and become law. Any bill, under these conditions, will be a major accomplishment. The odds have been improved, not damaged, by the president's approach,” he writes in a Washington Post op-ed.  Fiscal discipline, starting in his own house: “President Obama urged Congress Monday to limit cost-of-living pay raises to 2% for 1.3 million federal employees in 2010, extending an income squeeze that has hit private workers and threatens Social Security recipients and even 401(k) investors,” per USA Today’s Richard Wolf.  Ready for a campaign ad, somewhere: “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum. With little fanfare, a deal is moving forward to direct billions in U.S. tax dollars to an unlikely beneficiary — the giant British liquor producer that makes Captain Morgan rum,” the Chicago Tribune’s Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten report. “Under the agreement, London-based Diageo PLC will receive tax credits and other benefits worth $2.7 billion over 30 years, including the entire $165-million cost of building a state-of-the-art distillery on the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory.”  The race in Virginia — very much rocked. The Washington Post’s unearthing of GOP candidate Bob McDonnell’s thesis has the sense of a game-changer — if there’s a game to be changed. “The Virginia governor's race ignited Monday over Republican Robert F. McDonnell's 20-year-old graduate thesis: Democrats assailed him in e-mail blasts and interviews for what he wrote about working women, homosexuals and ‘fornicators,’ and McDonnell tried to explain his views to crucial moderate and female voters,” per the Post. “McDonnell's opponent, Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, bombarded state and national media with details of the thesis, submitted by McDonnell in 1989 for a master of arts in public policy and juris doctorate in law from Regent University in Virginia Beach.”  “I know Senator Deeds has got to try to make some controversy out of this. He’s behind in the polls,” McDonnell told reporters Monday, per ABC’s Teddy Davis. “You know why? [People] don’t care about a 20-year-old thesis. They care about what am I telling them today. What I have actually done for jobs, opportunity, and free enterprise and what am I going to do as governor. And that’s what people care about.”  In New Jersey, new Q-poll numbers: “Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine is losing the battle of the attack ads in his campaign for reelection and now trails Republican challenger Christopher Christie 47 – 37 percent among likely voters, with 9 percent for independent candidate Christopher Daggett, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.” In Massachusetts, the special election is set for Jan. 19, with the primary — the one that really counts — Dec. 8. “The governor’s announcement comes as the political world awaits a signal from Joe Kennedy, a former member of the US House, on whether he will seek his uncle’s seat. With three members of Congress and the state’s attorney general seriously considering running, Kennedy’s decision is expected to significantly shape the Democratic primary race,” Frank Phillips and Matt Viser report in The Boston Globe. “Kennedy is being urged to run by some relatives who would like to keep the seat in the family, and he could announce his intentions as soon as this week, according to people close to the family.”  No Vicki: “A solid source assures me that Vicki Kennedy won't run in a special election to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat. She's not interested in an interim appointment if it becomes available,” reports ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.  Special election Tuesday: “Voters in San Francisco’s suburbs head to the polls Tuesday to choose a successor to former Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher,” per CQ’s Rachel Kapochunas. “Democrats John Garamendi, California’s lieutenant governor, state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier and state Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan are the frontrunners to succeed Tauscher, who resigned from Congress in March to take a position in the State Department.” Old governors never really go away . . . “Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been privately talking with friends about a possible comeback, and is considering a run for statewide office next year, several sources told The Post,” Maggie Haberman reports in the New York Post. “Less than 18 months after he left Albany in a prostitution scandal, Spitzer has held informal discussions in recent weeks about the possibility of making a bid for state comptroller or the US Senate seat currently held by Kirsten Gillibrand, sources said.”  Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s book is due out next week — and he names names. “Emanuel wanted to return to the House after two years in the Obama administration to continue his quest to become speaker of the House one day, according to Blagojevich,” Bloomberg’s John McCormick writes.  “Rahm understandably wanted to keep his options open,” Blagojevich writes in “The Governor,” expected in stores on Sept. 8. “That’s what all good politicians do.” On Valerie Jarrett: “I knew her and I liked her. But was this the best I could do for the people of Illinois?” the ex-governor writes, per the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet.  Launching Tuesday: The Employment Policies Institute is calling it “stage 1″ of “a high-profile, multi-million dollar ad campaign that highlights and quantifies the enormity of the federal deficit.” Look for a national TV ad, print ads in The New York Times and USA Today, and a new website. 
The Kicker: “Clearly he wasn’t serious.” — Jon Summers, Harry Reid spokesman, after Reid reportedly told a Las Vegas Review-Journal advertising executive that he hoped his newspaper would “go out of business.”  “When the former President of the United States is caught with an intern in his, underneath his desk, does that impugn every Democrat in the country? So I don’t buy this broad brush, sweep that a lot of folks want to do to take situations involving [Mark] Sanford or [Sarah] Palin and make it writ large for every Republican in the country.” — RNC Chairman Michael Steele. 
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