lewinsky affair and impeachment. walter cronkite died in july at the age of 92. i'll be back in less than an hour for our coverage of president obama's health care speech. that starts at 8:00 p.m. eastern, until then thanks for watching. up next, lou dobbs tonight. >> as you said, we're now less than an hour away from the president's prime time speech to this joint session of congress. the white house, top democrats hoping this will be what they call a game changer, one they desperately need. we'll have new details of what the president is planning to say, planning to propose. also the most divisive part of the debate on health care so far, should the president's proposals include a government-run health care option. we'll have the answers, at least some of the answers in our face-off debate tonight. and the dramatic end to the hijacking of a boeing 737 from cancun, mexico. more than 100 passengers and crew set free after the hijackers threatened to blow up the aircraft.

this is lou dobbs tonight, news, debate and analysis for wednesday, september 9, live from new york, mr. independent, lou dobbs. >> good evening, and welcome, everybody. president obama's leadership skills about to be put to a critical test, in search of a game changer for this administration. the president about to leave the white house, headed for capitol hill where he will make what this administration hopes will be a pivotal speech on health care to a joint session of congress. president obama trying to gain control of a debate that he lost so dramatically over the past month. and finally outlines specific details of any health care plan for congress and the nation to consider. and all of this as a new poll shows public disapproval of president obama's handling of health care has jumped to a new high. we have complete coverage tonight, with the best political team on television, and we begin with ed henry, at the white

house. with new details of what the president is about to say to us. ed? >> reporter: lou, that's right, all day i have been hearing from senior officials here at the white house that the president was doing to be trying to make one last attempt to reach out to republicans tonight in this high pressure forum on capitol hill to say, look, we agree on maybe 90% of what's on the table. the 10%, let's try to work it out. let's try to come together. but i was also hearing the president was going to challenge those republicans and get a little more aggressive with them and sure enough, in the excerpts we have seen, the white house carefully shaping what they're going to say early on. the president will say i will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead. if you come to me with a serious set of proposals, i will be there to listen, my door is always open. but know this, i will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve it. i will not stand by while the

special interests use the same old tactics to kill this plan. if you misrepresent what's in the plan, we will call you out. and i will not accept the status quo. not this time, not now. the debate has already happened, it's been going on for months, it's been heated, he says it's also been somewhat confusing but his top aides say he wants to bring a bit of clarity to the situation by getting a bit more specific. but when you look at the three pages of excerpts the white house has put out before the speech, very little mention in those excerpts of the public option, which is sort of the critical piece that liberals and conservatives are waiting to hear, that certainly leads one -- that while the president will say he thinks the public option is good, he's not going to draw a line in the sand about that and that could lead to liberals revolting over there. >> dana bash, senator max baucus

saying senators are prepared to go ahead with their plans with or without republicans. first of all, with or without republicans, that may be as many as three republicans, that would be the with part. but never the less, this is a risky strategy for the democrats, isn't it? >> reporter: it is a risky strategy, but's the only strategy that's viable right now. what max baucus has done in seeing that he's going to schedule a time next week to formally unveil a health care proposal in the critical sflat finance committee, and then start votes the following week, what he's basically doing is accepting pressure that he has been getting from the house and democratic leaders that it is time to move on. and so there's no question that by saying this, he may seem to be signaling that he doesn't like it's likely to have any kind of bipartisan deal. but when he said he's going to move on with or without republicans, there was six

bipartisan negotiators, and some of these six said think still think it is possible to have a bipartisan agreement. >> the bipartisan agreement that will include as we said, as many as three whole republicans? >> there are three that are in the room. but part of the holdup among republicans is that many of them have said that in order to get a deal, they want to bring on a broader swathe of republicans so that's one of the major hurdles. >> a swathe of republicans. we're going to be hearing about that one. candy crowley joining us, this was supposed to be the president's big bipartisan moment. there haven't been many, but this was supposed to be one of the big ones, house majority leader john boehner says, wait a minute, republican leaders haven't even been to the white house for the past fife months. >> you not be surprised to know that there is a partisan disagreement as to who is not being bipartisan. it is, you know, the democrats say they don't want to, all they want to do is kill this bill, and the republicans saying we

weren't even in on putting these bills together. does the public care? i want to take a look at this new poll coming up. and the question was how important is support for both parties for a health care plan? 79% of americans said it was important. only 20% said it wasn't important. now take a look at this. if the president is unable to win republican support, what should he and congress do? only 28% said pass the bill anyway. 66% said keep trying. and here's the problem. the white house looking at this, they're always priorities, bipartisanship takes second place to getting something done. the president has signaled that, because their calculation is if a democratic white house, a democratic congress cannot come up with something on health care in 2010, the voters are not going to like that. so number one is getting something done. >> getting something done,

despite the fact that 29 to 20% says this bill must be bipartisan. jessica yellin joining us, the white house is selling this as what they hope will be a big game changer in the debate. are we going to hear specifics as the president promised or will there just be more rhetoric if you will? >> i think the most important thing we'll look at is how specific he is about cost cutting measures, how to pay for this, will this be deficit neutral or how to get it to deficit neutrality. he is going to be more specific tonight. and that's the key to making this a game changer and if we hear more of the same, what we have seen in these excerpts so far, seems to be more of the same. if he does not do that, he is not going to get the progress he wants from this speech. ed henry has pointed out this is the first time that obama has referred to this as my plan or

the plan or my bill, what will this bill cost and how will he get there? >> he's quite accommodating of the first person reference, is he not, when he embraces this plan, it's a plan that now what just about six weeks after his imposed deadline of august 1 from congress, we still don't have any specifics. >> we don't know what his plan is, let's listen, we'll hear it. the president tonight for the first time, he'll be laying out his plan. we'll hear how specific he gets. >> dana bash, last night you reported here on the health care plan in the senate that would fine people and families for not having health care coverage as part of the democratic plan. is there anything new tonight? >> in fact there is, one of the key republicans in those negotiations in the senate said to max baucus the chairman is that he has a problem with that. this is charles grassly, i'm told from a source close to the negotiations that he made it very clear in writing this morning that doing things like

fi fining a family of four, $6,600, that's not going to fly. he wants to change the mandate, that everybody in america have health insurance. that is what we're going to see as a big flash point in the coming days. >> there's no lacking of flash points in this debate, discussion and what we presume will be proposals. the associated press poll today, candy, brought a poll, so let's follow her lead, showing the president's disapproval rating on health care of nine points since july when the health care debate really began to heat up. >> candy, it's obvious, the american people are getting frustrated, they're getting annoyed, they're desperate for specifics, far more desperate for an honest discussion here, which apparently they don't feel they're getting, what's going on? >> one of the things has been that the president, at least from the white house point of view, the president really lost control of this debate sometime

around the time of the first town hall meeting and they feel, and you will hear him say tonight that people have distorted what's out there. so i think there is a lot of confusion among americans about, well, wait a second, what is in this bill? and when you say that i get to keep my insurance, you mean no matter what? what if my employer opts into a public option, then what happens to me? so there's so many moving parts of this, it's so big, that what the white house feels is that americans don't know what's in it they would support it and republicans think that they do know what's in it. >> the government is going to run a health care proo'-when the government can't even mean the language surrounding a proposal of the health care system. we're hearing new language, we're hearing game changer, we started to hear that through the summer. we have seen no game changers, this used to be called a hail

mary, it's been supplanted by game changer. is the administration a little nervous about what the president has done in terms of expectations and what must be accomplished here tonight. >> reporter: i think they're concerned, when you were talking a moment ago about the first person references in my plan, this president is taking ownership of this at a critical moment. i spoke to aides today who said that after spending much of the weekend work og on this speech last night, last night he was in the white house residence working on it began, brought new words down to the white house aides. on air force one on the way back from the cronkite memorial service today, the president again was reworking it. so he's taking ownership here because let's remember, going back to the campaign, he has very strong media skills, very good salesmanship skills but they haven't been put on display during this fight. he's been very flat footed in

not being able to push back. >> you said not on display, this man has been on television every single day for the past month talking about health care. >> reporter: on display, but not necessarily to the liking of this white house in terms of the high quality of salesman ship we saw in the campaign, the critics acknowledged during the campaign that he was a good salesman, that he was an effective communicator. yeah, he's been on the tube, but he has not really made the sale here. he's got to do it. >> apparently, that will be his job tonight. we'll see how he does. ed, thank you very much. dana, thank you, jessica, candy, we'll have the president's address to the joint session of congress coming up this hour, our special live coverage will be followed by thorough, complete analysis and a republican response. all that coming up on cnn tonight. coming up in the news, all 100 passengers in the aero

mexico bowing 737 that landed in mexico city's airport this afternoon after it was hijacked in cancun. a mexican official said the hijacker was a bolivian fanatic. the hijacker released all of the passengers shortly before police stormed the aircraft, no explosives were found, there were no injuries, the hijacker in custody. police in south florida arrested at least six former workers of the left wing activist group a.c.o.r.n. five more are now being sought. they were charged with voter registration fraught. they uncovered 900 fraudulent registrations in homestead, florida. a.c.o.r.n. under investigation in at least ten states over voter registration fraud. the upcoming speech and the

game changer the white house is looking for, leading members of congress aren't betting on it, how about you? we'll be right back.

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within the hour we'll be bringing you the president's address to a joint session of congress, we'll be providing you details of his health care proposals as will he. americans have been making their voices heard on this issue. thousands of constituents attending town hall meetings in what was highly charged debates often. casey wieian has our records. >> reporter: blood on the street, a fitting symbol of the debate over health care. last year a 69-year-old opponent of president obama's plan had the tip of his pinky finger bitten off. >> the gentleman kind of aggressed toward him like he was going to hit him. and he said, you're an idiot. and it all happened so quick.

>> scott bush retrieved the finger and called 911. >> i have the finger wrapped up in a napkin. >> investigators are still looking for the unidentified suspect seen here. many americans are still looking for answers from the president and their law mangers. >> i'm angry, i'm an american citizen, i'm a voter, i'm a taxpayer, i'm sick of the lies. >> this is more about taking power and control than it is about health care. it's only the first step to socialism. >> reporter: the debate is raising on youtube. >> are you going to vote the way the people want, the way the people who elected you? are you going to vote their voice or are you going to vote the way obama wants you to vote? >> i'm going to vote the way i want to vote. let me tell you how i arrive at my vote. >> reporter: some constituents explained their -- >> why do you continue to

support a nazi policy when obama has. >> when you ask me that question, i'm going to revert to ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question. on what planet do you spend most of your time. it is a tribute to the first amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated. >> not a single one of you had the decency to call my office and set up for a meeting. >> this is my town hall meeting and i set the rules. >> reporter: here indiana democrat barron hill responds to a student journalist's request to videotape the meeting. >> the reason why i don't want filming, is that the filming that's done end up on you tooub in a compromising position.

>> reporter: as one democratic lawmaker put it today, up to now, the messaging from the white house has been done by cybill, referring to the movie character with multiple personalities. it may take all of the president's personality and then some to bring about a successful resolution to this very emotional debate. and the growths of labor unions in california, far exceeding the national instance in every case. >> yeah, that's right, lou, last night we reported on the increase in union membership across the country and particularly here in california, one of the reasons private sector jobs which are largely nonunion have disappeared. at the same time, highly unionized government jobs have remained stable. >> let's go back to that -- let's go back to that number. that is amazing. if we could put that up please. 57% of the government jobs are

union jobs in the state of california? nearly 60%. >> absolutely. nearly 60%, 57% of the public sector employees in california belong to a labor union. you compare that with just 37% of government employees nationally. >> did you say just? did you say just 40% of the jobs? i mean we're talking about government jobs here, for crying out loud. this is crazy. >> absolutely. >> compare that if you will to the private sector. >> private sector in california still a bigger percentage, 10.6% of the jobs are unionized, nationally the figure is 7.5%. which of course explains why california has such a high rate of unionization compared to the nation as a whole. again, those government jobs haven't disappeared at the same rate as jobs in the private sector and those jobs are highly unioni unionized. to hear my thought about a lot of issues including the health care debate join me on

the radio monday through friday, go to loudobbs.com to get a local listing. wwor in new york, go to loudobbs.com and subscribe to our daily pods cast. on today's broadcast i talked be the health care overall, talking with senator judd gregg about what it will take for the republicans to move forward on any health care proposal. hear that entire interview and a lot more and subscribe to loudobbs.com. up next, it's billed as a key legislative speech of his presidency, all seven months of it. and should the plan include a government-run health care option? the subject of our face-off debate tonight. that's next. you like your health coverage, but worry what happens...

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here again, mr. independent, lou dobbs.

welcome back, the government-run option, one of the most divisive components of the president's health care proposals. supporters say it would keep the health insurance companies option. joining me now two of the leading elements of this debate. michael tuffin is a member of the group covering 200 million americans. that give you a pretty fair sample of the folks there representing. michael says the public option would dismantle employer coverage. good to have you with us. and mike rainer, he's the president of the workers united service employees international union. he says the public option is the only way to make certain everyone has health care coverage. good to have you both was. i'm going to start if i may, mr. tuffin with you, can the president, is there anything he can say tonight to convince you that health care legislation is

appropriate this year right now? >> oh, yes, it is appropriate, it's needed right now, and we're squarely behind that, costs are rising too much, we have got 47 million uninsured, quality is inconsistent. we need health care reform. we support health care reform. >> what can he say to get your support? >> what he can say to get our support and the american people's support is about cost contain him. we have worked with the siu over cost containment. if we don't do something about costs, frankly these other options won't even matter because the system won't be affordable for anybody. two, let's get everybody covered. let's fix the insurance market. let's make preexisting conditions a thing of the past and let's make sure that everybody has a path do coverage. >> it sounds like we just made a deal, doesn't it? >> we did, except we didn't finish the deal, we have to include a public option so we

can keep these insurance companies honest. in most markets, only one or two of them control the market, they're the ones that lead the cost. they're the ones leading the come pain to stop the public option. the public option will keep costs down, we have to have insurance not only for all the people that have it now, which the president's program will continue what they have now, both active and retired people, we need to cover the 50 million people that have no health insurance and all of those that are losing their insurance, 44,000 a week are losing their health care because they're losing their jobs. >> i don't want to digress, but both have used the number, 46 million, michael what is the number you used not covered by health care insurance? you just used 50 million. as we have looked at those numbers, the number approaches as best as we can determine, something around 20 million, maybe at the top 30 million. i don't understand why there's this hyperbole on these numbers,

beyond that are all these distortions. we have some real issues here, but both sides of the debate have started talking about 50 million folks. >> i think 50 million is the right number, there's 50 million americans today who have no health insurance, families who have to make a choice between putting gas in their car and putting food on the table and going to a doctor or taking their child to a doctor. in this country, we can do better than that. >> what in the world are you insurance companies doing? why aren't you doing better for the american people? >> we are and what we have proposed is to get all those americans covered. the 30 million who are hard core uninsured, or the 50 million who have limited coverage. >> you guys can do that on your own, you don't even need a president or a congress or anybody else, you could do that yourselves. >> to do that we need everybody in the system. the problem right now is we have a system in the individual insurance market, they buy

insurance when they anticipate being sick. and because of that that locks some people out of the system because there has to be an assessment of risk. if we get everybody in, that all goes away there,'s no preexisting conditions and there's no cancellations of policies, and there's a way to do this, we have 250 million, 275 million who have health insurance, we should build the system that's in place rather than turn the whole system over the washington. >> the system now is a job-based system, you lose your job, you lose your insurance. what we need is a way for those people to get affordable health insurance for people not only when they're sick, but preventative health care which will save money. >> that's what health plans do and what government plans don't do. important as medicaid and medicare are, they don't work on disease prevention and wellness. >> it's enormously popular, it's

enormously successful, it's enormously cost effective. what we need is a government option so that the insurance companies will be forced to keep their rates down. the insurance companies are funding an effort to stop the government option. it's because it will hurt their profits. i have no problem with them making profits, we need a system that's affordable for the company and for working americans. >> i think that would be sporting that you have no problem with profits. but the idea here is also that you have a bit of a problem because we have lost 30 million jobs in this country. we have got a president talking about health care, our number is 20 million to 30 million people without health care insurance, we have got 30 million people unemployed without prospect of re-employment as you well know. and we're one step closer to those people having no health insurance. >> not only if you have a job in this country, many of those 50 million people who have no

health care are also working full-time just because their employers don't provide health care. that's a reality in america today, and the president will solve that problem, making it mandatory for providing health care as an employer or get the government to do it. >> the president's disapproval on his handling of health care has risen above 50%. people don't like you insurance companies at all, they're not too thrilled with the unions east if. what happens tonight? >> hopefully tonight the president brings the country together by focusing on areas of consens consensus. 80 percent of what's been proposed is agreed on by everybody in this process. the government plan is a road block to reform, it's dif vicive it pushes people around. >> we're going to have health care reform this year, america wants it and we're going to do it. >> all right, we'll see what happens. up next, the president trying to

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well, the president's motorcade on its way to capitol hill for his speech, the president's speech, there you see those flashing lights. as the president is getting ready to address the joint session of congress, putting forward, we are told what will be some specifics on his health care plan. to assess that four of the best political analysts in the country, our d.c. bureau republican strategist, rich daniels, republican strategist cnn contributor ed rollins, also former white house political contributor. robert zimmerman and democratic strategist hayne shinekofp. instead of honest debate, we have seen scare tactics, some have dug into unyielding ideological camp and out of this blizzard of charges and counter

charges, confusion has reigned. what's your reaction to that? >> it's about time he put the facts out there and got in his face. >> but he won't name any names. >> but as he said he i'm call them out. this is a last chance president obama is going to have to speak to a national audience and to rally them. and hiss adoption of a bipartisan theme is going to be very important for democrats from moderate and conservative districts. >> what about the democratic strategist here, hayne shinekofp, the dnc has an ad out right now for the republicans and seniors. can we really continue to watch this suggestion that there is a bipartisan possibility here? >> it's absurd to assume there's bipartisanship. what we do is the midterm

congressional elections going on right now, and if he doesn't get the meat off the bones, democrats are going to have a problem on the midterm elections. >> let's also point out for the record, the democratic congress has adopted 160 amendments from republicans members of congress. >> name one. >> one dealing with employer flexibility when it came to health care benefits. removal of the death panels. there have been a number of amendments focusing on employer flexibili flexibilities, focusing on incentives for individuals. >> you better get in here before they wear you out. >> my friend ed rollins taught me when i was just a lada if you -- principles in politics is if you don't define yourself or your issue, your opponent will do it for you. the president should have been giving this speech eight weeks ago, he didn't do it and the opponents have defied the issue. and at this point it is as h.r. holder man used to use, tl

squared, too little, too late. he'll probably give a good speech. there may even be a bump. but these folks have to go home and start running for election. a lot of them are in behaviorally republican districts and they're not going to vote for a public option. >> we saw mike ross, a congressman from arkansas, leader of the blue dog democrats, a conservative group of democrats, come back and say, i don't care about you guys, i'm done with the public option. because he listened to his constituents and he can't take the heat. >> if the president wants to be really honest, he's going to say to the american public, is that when this thing is done, it's going to be good, we're going to cover a lot of people that aren't insured. but americans are going to pay more for their health insurance and they're going to get less. but the public option is this, the public option is that taxpayer are going to put $2 billion into the public option. they're going to pay 5% more than medicare.

medicare now pays 20% more than insurance companies so it means that doctors and hospitals and health care providers are going to get far less money. that sets a system up in which obviously the payments are lower, they don't have to pay federal and state taxes and at the end of the day, they're going to put insurance companies out of business. putting businesses out of business is not good for the economy. >> insurance companies, we don't have to hold any benefits for the insurance industry, they have done very well under republican dominated presidencies and congress. what we need is a health insurance -- the democrats have not been in power as long, let me be clear about that, lou, over the last 20 years. put it in context, they're going to do well again, but we need some way to insure people who are not insured to cut costs. that's not the issue as far as i'm concerned politically. the question is what are are the democrats going to do to stay alive. >> you raise a lot of very invalid points that have to be debated and analyzes. the one unacceptable path to take as an individual paying for

insurance is letting the present system continue because it's unaffordable. >> you say it's unacceptable, but we have seen the unacceptable from 1993 on when clinton proposed a crisis response called the health security act of 1993. but what i would like to get to is, can the president say anything, will he say anything tonight in your judgment about capping malpractice suits? will he talk about tort reform? will he get down to where the rubber meets the road in the political phrase and make something happen here? or is this going to be rhetoric? >> well, if it's rhetoric, the speech is not going to succeed. >> tort reform? >> i'm hoping he includes tort reform. >> the democratic lawyers need that money for trial lawyers to stay alive. >> no details. >> i think what we're going to get is obama going obama which he does certainly better than anybody else and certainly better than any other candidate last time. but the president is going to try to sound like he's being

bipartisan and reaching out. but in the cold light of tomorrow morning, people are going to say, you know what? i'm not for it. >> rich, does he succeed tonight? >> no. >> ed? >> if he gets down to bare boenz, he does. if not, he doesn't. >> we'll succeed in health care at the end of the year. coming up our president's address to the joint session of congress on health care reform. stay with us. you like your health coverage, but worry what happens...

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we're less than 15 minutes away from the president's address from a joint session of congress on health care reform, a pivotal speech, a speech that the president will try to

underscore, to determine that millions of americans campbell brown need health insurance, they want health insurance and he's got an idea how to make life better for americans. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, campbell brown is here as well. >> so many people are saying this is a make or break moment for the president, the speech tonight being described as a call to action. i think one of the big questions is are we going to hear from the president specifics, so many people have challenged him to really deliver specifics on what he needs to see on any kind of final bill. and the question is will we hear that from him in the speech tonight? >> he says enough of the bickering, enough of the games, now time for action, now time for specifics, he wants this legislation to get through. we're looking at the presidential motorcade now making its way up pennsylvania avenue over to capitol hill. the president will be walking in to the u.s. congress within the next few seconds, campbell, what a majestic shot as we take a

look at what the president is about to do. the first lady is there with a lot of special vips, she's invited to sit with her up in the gallery as we get ready for the president's address. this is an address the president has been working on now for days and days. he decided he needs this he needs this desperately if he's going to get health care reform in some vision he wants enacted. he needs to reach out not only to members of congress but the american people and convince them that he knows what he's doing, that what he's doing will help them. he'll be sitting the vice president with the speaker nancy pelosi right behind the president. we'll be seeing them standing off as they interrupt with a standing ovation. >> i want to go to our correspondent dana bash, our senior congressional correspondent, she's actually in the chamber right now. tell our viewers where you are

and what it's like in there. >> i'm up in the press gallery and i have a bird's-eye view of what's going on as we speak. members of the senate are being greeted by members of the house and just watching the members kind of milling around and talking to one of their before hand, before the senate came in, it really is, it's really illustrated the problem and the challenge that the president has and it's specifically with his own party and looking at liberal democrats like lund woolsey who have said absolutely no health care reform without a government-run option. and on the other side, they're saying we can't do this, we can't sell something like to our conservative constituencieconstu really do feel a sense of anticipation, because it's not just the president's political viability that's at stake here, it's each and every member of congress. because particularly for these democrats, they understand what

happened 15 and 16 years ago when president clinton failed. they understand that he wasn't the one who lost, many of members of congress are the one who is lost their seats. that is why this is such a pivotal moment not just for the president, but for every member of congress in here and in particular the big majority that was swept in with president obama back in november. >> at least once a year at the state of the union address when a president addresses a joint session of congress, this is a rare moment indeed, but one the president decided he desperately needed right now to try to turn things around and get some momentum going for health care reform. let's walk over to campbell brown, she's got the best political team on television getting ready to assess what's going on. we're only moments away, campbell. >> let me introduce ed rollins, and david gergen with us, candy crowley and gloria borger. and candy, let me start with you, this is the second time he's delivered a joint -- a

speech to the joint session of congress, the first was during the stimulus debate. the stakes were so high as he made that pitch, what are the stakes tonight? >> i think game i think the president has a chance to sort of has a chance to retake the conversation. they don't call it the bully pulpit for nothing. he has a chance to say, here's where it is, here's where it isn't. but to suggest tonight that he could change the game and make everyone go, yeah, let's go, i think, is wrong. i think what happens now may be the beginning of a pivot, but i don't think it's the pivot itself. because he's got to crack heads behind closed doors. he's got to get those democrats on board that dana was talking about. >> but he's also really talking to people outside the chamber. very much an outside game tonight. because he's seen the polls drop. people are confused about health care reform. he's got to convince senior citizens that this isn't going to cut their medicare and he has to convince people who have access to health insurance, who

get good care that this is also in their own interests and will make their insurance bills go down. he's got to convince the public. >> and paul, this is a man who is known for his communication skills. and yet there are a lot of people who have said he has bungled this message. i mean, how did we get to this point, where this speech is coming after what happened in august with the town halls and that kind of debate. >> the guy can't wait. my old boss, bill clinton, could give a good speech too, but the conventional wisdom is he engaged too much, too early. so this president, we all said prudently, let congress take the lead, and guess what, that became too. the truth is, it's a really hard issue. and what's different, not that the president will give a good speech. my boss gave a good speech 16 years ago and he didn't have a teleprompter for part of it. the difference is the audience on the hill, dana's right, in 1993, a senior democrat in congress told me, this health care bill is your boss' problem, not mine. okay, today, congressional

democrats understand that it is their rear end that's on the line in 2010. and if they fail here, they're the ones that will pay the price, not barack obama. i think that difference will be the game changer, not the speech. >> david, do you think it was a mistake, though, for him to lay out these broad outlines rather than sort of taking ownership of it from the beginning? >> in retrospect, yes. i think it's pretty clear that he overlearned the lessons of the clinton years, that had he had joint ownership with the congress, he would have had a smoother process, but i don't think this is all just about process. it's also about substance. there are a lot of people in this country who simply have objected for decade after decade to what they see as the government taking a large role or taking over health care. and that's why so many presidents have tried to climb this mountain and none has yet succeeded. barack obama, so far, has come closer than any in the past. but it's still a steep mountain climb. >> ted? >> the critical thing here for this president tonight is not just the substance, which he needs to give more substance than he's done and he has to

introduce something new. either it's a malpractice tort reform or something like that. >> something republicans have been pushing for. >> or the public option is sacred, i'm not going to back away from it. but i think what's happened to this president, possibly because of high expectations, is day by day, his leadership quality has dripped away and democrats are saying, this guy is not running with the ball the way we want him to. >> wolf, we've seen some excerpts from the speech released earlier, but we're still waits on specifics. >> yeah, hopefully we'll get a lot more specifics in what's expected to be a 40 or 45-minute address by the president. wherever we deal with health-related issues, medical issues, we always want to speak to our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, who himself is a neurosurgeon. he's on assignment for us right now in kandahar, afghanistan. but sanjay, before we talk about that later tonight on "a.c. 360," what about the president's address right now? what does he need to say to congress and the american people?

>> reporter: -- focused on what the president's going to say tonight. we're in a battlefield hospital right now. people talking about this, even for the last several hours, a lot of confusion still. that may be the first starting point in terms of what he has to do. what exactly is the plan that we're talking about. even doctors, nurses here that i've been talking to aren't quite sure on that. i think the second thing, and this has come up over and over again, is this idea that there's a lot of people who have health care insurance. what exactly is this going to mean for them, this new bill, is it going to somehow change the safety of their health care insurance they have now, the security of it in some way? also, when you talk about guaranteed access for health care insurance, since the campaign, the candidate obama talked about trying to decrease costs and increasing access. doing those two things simultaneously. he's always talked about this idea of bending the cost curve downward. how do you do that while

increasing access? that's another question that people have told me they want to see addressed. these are some of the issues that seem to come up over and over again, but i think that there's been a lot of concern, again, from people who have insurance, medicare recipients, is this new plan going to affect them somehow and if it's not, he has to make that point very clearly. is he going to emphasize what he's been saying all along, or is he going to go in a little bit of a different direction tonight? we don't know. >> sanjay gupta reporting for us from kandahar, afghanistan. he'll have a lot more on what's happening in the war zone with the troops later on "a.c. 360," 10:00 p.m. eastern. anderson and sanjay, michael ware, peter bergen, they're doing amazing reporting. they're risking their lives. we'll want to see their reports later tonight, 10:00 p.m. eastern, "a.c. 360." let's go to our senior white house correspondent, ed henry right now. ed, as important as this speech is going to be, it's not the end of the deal by any means. the president will have to follow up tomorrow and the next day and days to come if he wants this passed?

>> reporter: it is, wolf. many people might think this is the end, but it's really the beginning. cnn has just learned that the president is planning to invite more than a dozen centrist democratic senators here to the white house tomorrow, right after this speech. try to get some momentum, but also as candy was referring to, get them behind closed doors. these are the decision makers, the folks who are sitting on the fence. many of east centrist senate democrats, people like evan bayh, ben nelson of nebraska, they don't want a public option. so the president needs to get them in a room after delivering this speech here at the white house and say, what is it going to take to get your vote? what do you think? how do we move forward? i'm also told that earlier today, the white house chief of staff, rahm emanuel, was up on capitol hill, working the same group of centrist senate democrats. again, it shows how this white house is going to have to move very quickly from the rhetoric tonight to the reality of the lobbying, the nose count, the one on one strong arms in some case, the tactics this president's going to have to use to bring his own democrats along, wolf.

>> he's got a real problem, not necessarily with the republicans, most of whom, if not all of who are going to oppose him, but the democrats, he'll need all of them, every single one of them if he wants to get this passed. campbell, the president is going to say in the excerpts that have already been released that the bickering is over, but i suspect the bickering may only just be beginning. >> i think you're right about that. and let me go to the panel just for a moment at least and get your take on the one thing we've spent a lot of time talking about and that is the public option. and a lot of people anticipate tonight, gloria, that he's going to say the public option is preferable, but not essential. what does that mean if that's the message? >> it means that he's going to say, this is what i support, but we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. and if you've got a better idea, show it to me, right? but one more thing, campbell, he's also got to make it clear that he's really trying to attack the deficit issue, that he's not going to let this get -- cost trillions of dollars. and we're told that he's going to propose a fiscal trigger, so if spending gets out of control on health care, he's going to

make some cuts. so he's going to try and show the american public that he hears the message on the deficit. >> but does this mean, going back to the publquestion, davide public option, it's dead if he says that? >> listen, i agree with that, but it's really hard to blow the bugle and say, follow me up the hill. and say, by the way, i may not want to go all the way up the hill. that's hard to do. >> is that ultimately the message that's going to be delivered? >> no, i think he's going to hammer the health insurance companies and by extension, the republicans who support their agenda, say that this is a more preferable option, but he cannot, ought not, and will not say i will veto any bill that has that in it. >> but he knows those liberals are safe. >> nobody thinks they're safe. 20 may think they're safe. >> at the worst of the town hall meetings for the democrats, the most excitement, 62% of americans in the quinnipiac poll

still support a public option. only 46% support obama on health care. so the public option's doing a lot better than president obama. >> it also depends on how you ask the question, too. because there's some disagreement of what actually a public option is. i think that the president signals tonight that the public option is gone, if you talk to people on capitol hill. they just don't see a way on the senate side that they can get this through. which sets up your general democrats in the house versus democrats in the senate sort of fight. but if the idea is you have to get something, the liberals are more likely to go with the president than the conservatives and moderates are to go with him. >> we will see, as the speech is about to begin, wolf? >> the vice president, the president of the senate, joe biden, the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. they're going through some of the parliamentary maneuvers necessary to get this rare joint session of congress going. the members from the house of representatives, the members from the united states senate, they're in place. members of the cabinet