am i willing to cross my own party in congress and the party leaders. this has always been his problem on every issue. every issue, will he push his own party members, in both health care, financial reform, all the big things. he essentially deferred to them. he helped them, took some credit, but he basically let them take the lead. the thing now, he's got to take this issue and run with it. and i think he's indicated, whether he likes it or not, it's his issue now. and i think there's a great political opportunity, if he steps forward and comes up with a plan that both sides attack. because then he will be seen as the leader, and i think you would find that those numbers change. >> all right. well, steven pearlstein from "the washington post", these will be interesting times to watch on this issue. thank you very much. >> by the way, we've kicked everything to december, it seems like. >> i know! december has arrived. we have an afghanistan/pakistan review. we haven't talked about that. let's do our trivia, today's