engage you. and i think that obama was so convinced that he could push washington into a better era that he did not think he should engage the debate in the kind of hard-edged and sharp and even ideological way, for example, that ronald reagan did in his very difficult first year and to his own benefit. >> it's interesting you brought that up. i was very struck in reading the article last night when the magazine came out you make comparison to the reagan year, which i covered back in those days. >> right. >> you say he had core convictions and somehow president obama has not communicated his core convictions. >> tom perriello said to me the good news is that the president understands the moment and we're able to see a more combative side, speaking about health care in pennsylvania. but perriello continued, the problem is, we don't know yet who the president really is. that could not have possibly been said about reagan.