point? i say depend where you are. if you re in democratic district, 100% i want president obama to campaign because he is still very popular there. if you re in a swing district i might not. and i don t disagree, let me make something clear, i don t disagree right now that this is politically problematic for president and democrats. there is no question. they have to focus on it and fix it. there will be broader questions by november 2014. remember a month ago we were talking about demise of republican party because of shutdown. it will only get worse. it will not get ther. these are beginnings of the problem, not the end of the problem. we re talking about the president s popularity. that same poll showed him down to 37%. that includes a lot of democrats. 41, 42% in other polls. talk about democrats campaign, terry mcauliffe in state of virginia, they never mentioned obamacare when the president came in. we re getting word that president and democrats backing away from obamac
it s indicative of broader issues. that s the sort of rub here politically speaking. is this about a website that everyone has acknowledged is not working the way it should, or is it sort of the leading edge of a broader definition that the law is just not ready for primetime? if it s the former, i m not sure how damaging it is politically. but if it s the latter, you re going to hear a lot about health care, healthcare.gov and the law more broadly in 2014. remember, this is an issue that animates the republican base like none other. base politics matter much more in a midterm election with lower turnout than a presidential. we saw the usual theater of a congressional hearing. both parties back and forth. everyone had their very rehearsed one liners. let s watch. some people like to drive a ford, not a ferrari. some people like to drink out of a red solo cup and others
we wait with baited breath. both of the plans in the senate and house will fund the government, obama care included, through january 15th, 2014. remember that date. that was chosen for a specific reason and i ll get to that in a moment. both of the plans would let the government continue to borrow money as well. that would go through february 7th. and the senate plan would require both houses to craft a proper budget. remember the days when we had a proper budget? they d have to do that at some point in december. the senate plan calls for minor tweaks to the affordable care act and the obama care, but nothing remotely approaching that scrubbing that the house gop was demanding. and if you ll remember, two weeks ago that actually led to the government shutdown. the house plan would actually delay something called the pacemaker tax. that s a tax on medical devices. that s been talked about a lot. and it would bar health care
that something can eventually come out of this but the list is incredible. let me get to the beginning of it. the most conservative senators, cornyn, demint, toomey, johnson. no big surprise there, do you think? john cornyn was the head of the senate campaign committee and criticized and he got a lot of criticism from tea party types for not being conservative enough. so tamron, looking how far to the right the tea party moved, you see one of the most conservative senators under fire. so interesting. most liberal senators, blumenthal and udall, franken, murray. again, any big revelation there? well, i like al franken number three on the list because he s up for re-election in 2014. remember, that campaign six years ago was one of the most interesting, fascinating political elections of that cycle.
the ideas that he a lick tated in the inauguration speech, those are american values. these are not traditionally democratic values. republicans used to be able to talk about these issues. it is really the republican party that has left the center, that has left america. bill: you can t see her but monica is smiling at you, emily. i will come back to you in a moment here. but overall, the theme you re picking up on now is that if you can delay the big, big, decisions facing america and government, monica, you can put all your cards on the table for a midterm election, if you take control of the house you have two years of an open playing field. do yo think that is the strategy? absolutely. it is all about 2014. remember the president had the run of the field in his first two years before the house flipped to republican control. he misses that. and what he wants for his legacy is, as he said in 2008, the fundamental transformation of the nation. by that he means turning america into