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"hardball" starts right now. defending obama care. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm michael smerconish in for chris matthews. leading off tonight president obama throws down the gauntlet on republicans launching an all-out offensive against republican threats to cripple his signature achievement, obama care. in a press conference late today the president was defiant. at times he almost seemed to taunt republicans when it came to their threat to shut down the government over the issue. in attacks that were swift and surgical, he began by calling out the republican fixation of obstructionism. >> the really interesting question is why it is that my friends in the other party have made the idea of preventing these people from getting health care their holy grail, their number one priority. the one unifying principle in the republican party at the moment is making sure that 30 million people don't have health care. that's hard to understand as an agenda that's going to strengthen our middle class. >> and this was his response to tea party leaders like ted cruz, rand paul and mike lee who are championing a government shutdown if the obama care law is not defunded. >> the idea that you would shut down the government unless you so calculated's probably not the word i would use, but i think he wanted to make sure that he drew a line, was a bit more defiant. he's been getting a lot of grief behind the scenes saying you've got to sell this law better, you've got to do this. and i heard more clarity from him than i have in a while on this. of course, the real test of all this, michael, is going to be is he start going on the road and proactively doing this rather than doing this when he's asked a question about health care but proactively going out on the road and selling this and selling implementation. he's going to have to. he's got to turn these poll numbers around, or he is going to find moving congress on this is going to be a lot harder. republicans just sit there and they look at the scoreboard. and they say, guess what, half the country thinks it's a bad idea. less than 40% thinks this law's a good idea. >> well, to your point, let me show some polling data on the issue of whether it's a good or bad idea. there it is, good idea 34%, bad idea 47%. chris cillizza, you know, i follow you in all your social media. you did say get ready for the sixthness or so question. i think you had a-rod in mind. but this is the one that ended up generating all the news. >> you know, chuck makes the right point, which is the president has not given this sort of passionate defense of his law that many hoped. i think that this is an interesting way that he did it. he didn't -- i mean he did defend obama care broadly, but it was in the context of sort of a dare. and, michael, i think you used that word, sort of a challenge. be my guest if you want to try to link defunding obama care to a government shutdown. i think he's on safer political ground there though the law broadly is not possible. the idea of shutting down government over health care and unfunding i think is also popular. i think that's why you've seen people like mitt romney earlier this week in new hampshire come out and say we should not do and part b of my question, is the president also taking advantage of the fact that he's pretty much the only person in town so there can't be a coherent reply offered by the gop per se? >> well, that's right. but you're going to hear, i think, conservatives are going to hear that and say, hey, that's an unfair strawman. look at what he's trying to do, he's trying to paint us as anti-poor or we don't want poor people to get health care. but i tell you, it was, yes, the president likes to use strawman arguments, but that is a tough message for him to do. you know, both sides use straw men to make their arguments. we've heard what the republicans do when it comes to what they believe the health care law's going to do, whether it's on the economy, whether it's on job creation and things like that. so the president i think pushing back i think it's only going to increase the amount of rhetoric from the right in sort of pushing back on his statement that somehow they don't care about these 30 million people that don't have health care, that they don't want them somehow to get health care. so i think you'll see an increase in the rhetoric, but i think this is a case where the white house believes they may not be on the right side of public opinion about the overall law, but as chris pointed out, they believe they're on the right side of public opinion on this idea that you gum up the works and you create more gridlock to try to stop it. >> well, chuck, you make the point the question remains will the president now go on the road and speak with such passion? but, chris, cillizza, i think a corresponding question is does he get any support? because the president may not have sold this to date, but he sure hasn't had the assistance of his own party to try and sell this message. >> well, you know, i think it's sort of one of those things should i take the first step, do you want to take the first step. >> yes. >> everyone in some ways is waiting. he is, ultimately, michael, he's the biggest politician in the democratic party and in either party. i think if he wants people to follow, he is going to have to take the lead. now, i will say i think he's much more comfortable making the argument that republicans are cutting off their nose despite -- to spite their face on this. forget what you think about the health care law, the idea of defunding something that is law, threatening that in exchange for government shutdown that is an issue i think he feels more strongly about. i can tell you and i agree with chuck on this. ideological fixation, the words the president used to describe republicans voting to repeal part of all of obama care, yeah, that's not going to go down so well in the republican party. they are not going to have warmer relations after today. >> well, chuck, despite the attacks on the republican insurgency against his health care law and the threat to shut down the government over the issue, the president did say he thinks in the end common sense will prevail. here it is. >> the idea that you would shut down the government at a time when the recovery's getting some traction, where we're growing although not as fast as we need to, where the housing market is recovering although not as fast as we would like, that we would precipitate another crisis here in washington that no economist thinks is a good idea. i'm assuming that they will not take that path. i have confidence that common sense in the end will prevail. >> chuck todd, do you have confidence that in the end common sense will prevail? >> no leader of the republican party, and i say that leader of the republican party, wants to pursue this path. the question i have though is how do they stop it? inertia, can they come up with an alternative way? can they rally their party in such a way that says -- cause they're not going to get cooperation from democrats on trying to somehow find a stopgap measure here. can they find some way to appease the tea party wing of the party that really wants this, that wants some sort of stand on principles and all of this to try to force this vote? can they come up with a compromise that appeases them in some form, but also can get through? look, i think -- i know the leaders don't want to do this, boehner, mcconnell, you name it, i don't know how they stop it. i don't see a clear plan by them on how to prevent this from happening. >> one other aspect, chris cillizza, i thought it was interesting that the president begins to try to manage expectations with regards to the delivery come october 1st. you heard that reference by way to the iphone, right? when he made reference to apple and the launch of a new product. the president said today stuff, his word, stuff happens. and we all know what he means because you know that the first few glitches with implementation are going to get trumpeted on drudge, trumpeted on fox and talk radio, and could get the stage for the 2014 cycle unless they're responded to or managed. >> and, look, you know, i think, michael, this administration has struggled at times whether it's health care, economic stimulus, they have struggled to manage expectations effectively. they've sort of said, well, remember, as soon as the health care law begins to kick in, it's going to get more popular. that wasn't necessarily the case. i think he's trying to do that. look, the president is not unaware of that poll number that you read, 34% of people think it's a good law. they're aware of that. they're aware of the difficulties of selling this. i will say and i don't want to sound like a broken record, i will say if republicans continue to push the tying of defunding health care, the government shutdown, they are handing on a silver platter a message that president obama can actually talk about health care, the health care law and went on. there aren't a lot of messages he can talk about health care win on. this would be one of them. i think that's why you see to chuck's point, mitch mcconnell doesn't want to do this, john boehner doesn't want to do this, mitt romney said they shouldn't publicly do this. there's a reason that minds like that in the party are warning on it. >> chris, thank you. chris cillizza, thank you so much. chuck todd, as always, we appreciate you both. >> thank you. >> coming up, four summers ago, the tea party road to power by disrupting members of congress could hillary clinton turn deep red georgia blue in 2016? let's check the "hardball" scoreboard. according to a new ppp poll, clinton leads gop front-runner rand paul by five, 48-43. she leads paul ryan by three, 47-44. she beats native son newt gingrich by four, 47-43. against jeb bush it's a tie right now at 45 a piece. and the only republican who has a lead on clinton right now is chris christie at 44-42. all those match-ups are competitive. by the way, bill clinton carried georgia in 1992 and then lost it in 1996. we'll be right back. let's play:
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