weeks away from the iowa caucus on the republican side, we're less than a year away from the presidential election. there are politics in here too. what message was the president trying to send? >> the fact of the matter is the reason why so many non-house republicans have come out and told the house republicans to just move on, get this thing finished, is because of the politics of this. because speeches like this, when the president, the longer this drags on, the president's able to look like the uniter. he's not engaged in something that looks like, you know, a fight that he can lose. he's on the high ground here. so the more he can do that, the more he looks like he can be anti-washington, you know, the more he can be anti-congress, to talk against the paralysis that exists in the city, when people outside the beltway, you know, don't pay attention to the machinations. when the machinations -- >> the specifics. >> right. when all of that is on, is front and center, and obama can look like he can rise above that, that's good politics. >> absolutely. and remember, people, he ran on