the white house and michele bachmann. a lot of great news for the president. what do you say from the podium that the president is officially running for re-election? i think it s likely that that s going to happen. president obama s lake duck boost has the white house feeling optimistic. he s being rewarded for that lame-duck period. for the first time, it s almost like he got rid of the health care weight. he certainly ignored jobs for a long time, but did some things right in the beginning. but republicans continue the mission they claim voters sent them to do, dismantle the obama agenda. republicans say they re moving full steam ahead with their plan to take down president obama s health care law. they make themselves look ridiculous. that ship has sailed. new warning signs for republicans. just 25% of people say republicans in congress will bring the right kind of change. are republicans focusing too much on health care and not enough on jobs? i thought tha
gettysburg address. i will reintroduce the end of the lake duck act to prevent prour grabs as we ve seen at the end of this session. the end the lake dum alame duck. congress would be forced to adjourn the first wednesday of december. congress would not pass any laws unless a national emergency warrants it. even though you ve leaked your house member to serve two full years, they would take the last two months off? what is this, show business? after a historic lame duck session in which president obama and the democrats passed the nuke treaty deal and the repeal of don t ask, don t it tell, after republicans failed to prevent all those things from happening, they would now like to end the mechanism by which they happened in the first place, thank you very much.
editorial writer from the washington post jonathan capehart joins me. how are you? i m swell. so just not that long ago, none other than katrina vandenhool was talked about a obama as a potential one-term failed president. he was weak. he was getting rolled. now he s had what some people are describing as a triumphant lake duck session. what does that say to you about his prospects for re-election in 2012? his prospects are very good, and that people make a mistake in underestimating him in questioning his abilities. that s not to say he didn t make mistakes and needed to learn lessons. if you want to get anything done in washington, you have to really do it yourself. so nothing beats executive leadership and power in getting things done.
conversation that might not pass. it is really a disgrace to this country and similarly with the s.t.a.r.t. bill. the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. foreign policy and measures like this have always been something we don t play politics and where there s broad agreement, so it s a little shocking that we re having to argue with jon kyl who can t keep up with his work. rick, let s go to you. these look like no brainers. they have massive popular support. you got the entire foreign policy on the state-of-the-a.t.. the first responder bill. so why is the gop blocking this stuff? first of all, let s look at the glass half full. both sides have come together and things are xweting done. that s what the american public wants. they want to see some of these problems solved. will every one be solved in the lake duck session? absolutely not. respects want to get those
don t tell, repealing it. some people in his party gave up hope that he would be able to do it. so you re going to see these stories out there. obama is back. i think you ve got to temper that with, sure, he s done well with the lake-duck so far. even though it got stalled in the senate and returned back to the house, nancy pelosi who still speaker for a few more days said pass it as a stand-alone and then they got it through the senate. with john boehner we are not going to have quite as much leverage. come january this president is going to be racking up victories, that s going to be tough. maybe he shows that reaching out to republicans and forcing them to govern with him, he may do better than a lot of people expected. let s talk about the s.t.a.r.t. treaty that they are working on. that s the language thing that the president wants to get done. that s why he stayed behind. it suffered a big blow when mitch mccon nel went on state of