pete presidential rumr corol in the health care debate. calling the shots in the battle against swine flu. hillary clinto's mission to afri. anwhat's next for afghistan? i'm pete wliams. sitting in for gwen ifill. toight on "washingn week." the preside takes to the ro to put out wilfires over health ce reform. >> the way polits works metimes is that people who wa to keep things th way th are will try to scae the heck out of folks. pete: how fe about an end of life provisi has become the viral lking point in the reformebate. the start ofthe school year also means flu seasonis just around the cornr. >> yunger individua and pregnant women appearo be much more vulnerable to erious disease. pete: the governnt's plan to getahead of the swine flu virus. hillary linton spends11 days in afri. but was i a lost in

translation moment that overshowed her missi? >> you wa me to tell you what my husband thinks? my husband is not the secretary oftate. i am. pete: questns of substae and staing for the secretar ostate. and while s. troops drawdown iraq, the fighting intensifiesn afghanistan. on the eve f presidtial elections. >> they'rebviously holding an election in adverse circumstances pete: how thtaliban is rcing changes in u.s. strategy. covering these storiesthis week,anet hook of he "los geles times." michael duffy of "time" magazine. janine zacharia of bloomberg news. d ames kitfield of national journa >> celebrating 40 yeas of journaltic excellce, live from our ation's capita this is "washington week with gwen ifill"roduced in associaon with "nation journal." corporate funing for

washington wk is provided by -- >> thy shape our wold. createew wonders andew conveniences. amera's minerals. they're the stuff our drms are made o. tre's more informatn at nma.org. >> corporate funding for "washington week" is rovided by boeing. majorfundng for"washington week" is also proded by the annenbergfoundation. thcorporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewer like you. thanyou. once again, livfrom washington sitting in for gwen ifl this week, pete willams of nbc news. pete: good evening. when membe of congress hd home fothe summer, their meetings with constuents are seldom ahot ticket. they're tpically quiet gatheringsith pernial quesons about cutting taxes and fixing potholes. but not ths summer. it's been hardto tell the

teevised town hallmeetings on health carfrom reruns of jey springer. president obamaas responded by pushing extra ha for wt he says will be thlargest reform effort ever for health care with three town halls jt this week in nw hampshire, monta, and colorado. and epecially cntroversial provision is sething called end of life couseling. the rumors andthe questions ve been putting lawmakers on the defensi. >> he democrats tell us all the time that 's the right of every american to have health care. yet it eems this obama plan will systematically deny those rights to certainroups like the eldey. >> we shouldnot have a gornment program that determines youe going to pull e plug on grand. >> hat it says is as a 74-year-old man if you develop cancer, we're retty much going to write you off. >> well, yu're just not rigt. nobody74 is going tbe written off because ey have caer.

that's vicious, malicis untrueumor. pe: so have questionslike this derail the administration'slan to sell health re, janet? >> well, they haven't derailed it. but they've certaly taken it the debate in a dection that nobody had expeted. d it put the oba administration and t democrs in congress on he fensive on topics thatthey were not really expecting to come up. theseown hall meeings and the legi of attack ad that have been put up on tvnd radio, they're al very shrill and partin and sngularly uninrmative. and unfortunately, they bend -- that and inernet traffichas been the ehicle for distortions and misleading claims and this end of life debate is te classic exame. what could be more rightening to the elderly populatio, which are an impoant constituency in the heth care system, and the poliical syem, than finding outhat ey're going to pull the pg on you?

pete: let's get clear n what it is. this would reimburse octors i they ge end of life counseling, uld they have to give it? would paties have to receive ? >> right. that'she thing. that it is completely vountary. medica reimburses doctors for doing lots of hings. givng shots. doing x-rays. and now they're aying that they shoulbe reimbursed or unseling the elderly eery five yearsn what kind of arrangents, living will or what kindof pain medition theywant. and ts has been turned into a mecare subsidized negotiion how you're going to ie. a sarah alin gve t a nw dimension hen she put on her blog that this amountedto death panels. pete: what i the public policy reas for doing this other than doctors say they do th alread and want to be rembursed, but why he this in the health cre plan? >> you can say that -- anth may be lso why people -- criti are nervous about it. in the context of a cost

cutting program, yo know, a lot money can bespent at e end of life, keeping life support on somebody w everyone knows is ing to die. so you could say it's a rudent policy decision to mak. pete: but the goal is to fnd out if peop want this sort of -- f the end of their live or not. >> the fear isby being counseled you're going tbe compelled. >> we've seen obama alk a lot this wek, is he trying to regain the momentum, hashe had any luck any signs they'r back onmessage and have sort of stered the debate back to where they wanit? >> well,t certainly is the case that he kind of jumd right into the debate th week in a way th he hadn't befor and he didseem a littlebit taken abk by hw much blowback thereas on the bill and it wasn't ust on these marginal issues. there's been a big pushback o the question of how deeply involved theederal government's going to ge so he's outthere on his twn hall meetin. d i've got to sa he -- the

were more lik campaign event than lie a town meting. and the quesons were all rather friendly, not nearly as confrontational as the knds of questions that we ust saw senator secter getting. >> there are some indications this weethat that provision thatas so controversial o the advisoryend of life advisory ssidies, will actually now fl out. which would suggest that e opponents, however ill-formed, misinformed,or eacherous they were, succeeded. that may be the case. senor chuck grassley,he is a very mportant peson in the negotiations, because he'sne of the few republican who still at the table and he indiated this week that he thought that wsn't going tbe in the sate bill. now, maybe by e time they get around to wring the final bill it will hav blown ove. but it is the case somemes that in search of a ig policy change, a lite -- one corner of it gets in he way. and sometimes embers o congress just say 's not worth te trouble.

>> what's the me plan hee? are they going ontinue with the mud wrestling thou halls or try smething -- town hals or try sething else? >> they wil try it through august. coress isn't in session and that why they're back home and trying to persue their constituents oflair various points of view on the health care. anwhat i don't know i whether the blowback against at obama's trying to do is o strong at they can do nothing but play deense. i mean, it's eally remarkable to have the presidentof the united states have to p up a websit that's a eality che or -- and ay these are myths out what i'm trying to do. e has the bully ulpit and it's remarkable thathe terms of debate we taken away from him. pete: the other big thin on this was there was controversial, the public tion. are ere any signs that the opponents n think they have the momentum and tey're going to g that public optio out? >> there's some compromises on the table that pbably are the most promisi route as always in congress. the liberals say any bil i a

doesn have a govnment option - bill that doesn't have a governmenoption won't pa. but knob tnks that the senate would accept -- but nody thinks that the senate woul accept that. petethe government is preparing to launch onof the largest public alth initiatives ever in response to expected return of theswine flu. one big issue is whatto do withthe nation's 55 million childrein public schools to makeertain that the h1n1 virus can be cotained anda major question iswhen a new vaccine will be rady and who shouldet it, what's the answer? >> thas a great question. anit is amazing hat at t end of this robust debe about alth care, they're about to have thismassive behind-the-scenecampaign. the government is abt to preemptive attack an epidemic and theyan do it because have the medicine. whether they can dot on a communications basis is nother question. sometime overthe next 60 to 90 daysthe government wiltry to vaccinate 160 milon americans there's a very defite pecking order here. pele under 24. people who take carof babies

under six months becausehey can't get a vcine. pregnant women. health care and emergency workers. and one group who have chonic illness. about 160 millionamericans. that's the biggest immnization fort since polio. and they'e got to do it fairly quickly. anit's trick country baugs the vaccine -- it's tricky becausthe vaccine won't be ailable when the flu season starts a one big test to g orgazed for and second, wh too when it cmes toschool? the mos vunerable people, st flus,people oer 50, nior citizens, this reay disproportionely impacts young people people who don't kno very much about hygie and aren't very od at it. and ere they hang out, especily in the fall, in t school, and last year, ithe springhen this hit, the school diricts shut down fo a week, 10 days. governme has said in the last week we don want you to close but we want si people to stay home. if they art coming to school we want you to parate them out and get em home. we may have to s up screening stations in your schoo. and of course they're aut to put out guidance next wk in the next cple of days for

colleges because tse kids mostly don go home. so this is a massiveoperation on the school level. and we don' know how that's going to work a the government said we might chae our guidancet any time. and guess that leads to the third test that ty're facing. ani'll be quick. that i the eduational formational challenge. it's one thing to have a nationwide vacce 50 years ago when there were fr sources of information and now the are asen sourc of informati as there are -- now therere as many sources of infomation as there are people and ny bad and th challenge for govnment to putno crierringconn pecking ord. ey're trying it out righ now. several dierent companies have made it. they'reworking -- they're

ging it to people to see ow they eact and whetherthere are adverseffects. they're hoping t have it availae by the -- fst they said mid toate october. that's again, aost two monhs after scho starts. school starts this weekendn someplaces. but now they're thiing it ght be the full course migt be not until mid november. and here another trick. looks like it's not a one-shot deal but if y're in the protted group or the group that needs it, two sho which makes anven bigger hass and might be a week or two apart. again, whether the vaccine is going to make aifference even tugh we're going to the trouble of making it, hope it does buanother huge chlenge. >> is thisike y2k? are theyxaggerating or a concrete reason to believe there will be an obreak? >> becausehe government is trying to preempvely attack thishey had no choice but to overreact. and because they know from what's happened bo in the spring a what happened south of the equator duringtheir fall flu season, thi summe and last sprng, we know that some groups, this an move quickly through some

populationsand it can be quite dangerou don't think they're overacting and if you were the government having been through y2k and karina, would you take a chance d undreact? probably not. >> any idea why it's attcking the susceptie populations like women who are pregna and young childrennd some healthy yog people as well? >> te good news is they know who it attacks most sverely but don't know why seniors e relatively better off than ey would be with seasal flu. probly because they've been through so many yea of other bad uff. and ve some immunity. and young people who are ost susceptible n't. pregnant women ian ieresting case. this official fom the c.d.. to me today that pregnant women caget this and get ery si very quickly. from thisflu bug. and so they moe to the front of the le. that's acontroversial sue. t they don't rally knowwhy. me groups are beter off than others. >> can anyone get vaccine that wants or do you have to be in the approved categy bere you can get it? >> theovernment will let us kn how they're going to mae

sure that the ght people get it in the right arms athe right tim what is n known is how they're gointo do it. pet: thank you. while all this talk abut health was going on secetary of state hiary clinton was half a world ay. visiting ven countries in africa. shing the obama administration commitment to at continent. shwent there to help encouragmore democracy and promote energy developent. but twounscripted moments seemed t define h trip. in the congo she was asked wha her hsband, the forer president,thought of a deal the chinese hd there. >> wait. you want me to tell you whatmy husband thinks? my husband is not the cretary of state i am. no, you askedmy opinion. will tell you my opinion. i'm not going to bchanneling my husband. pete: the otr was acomment about ection corruption in soe south african cuntries. >> our democracy is still evolving. we had all kinds of prlems in some ofour past electns. you might remember.

in 2000, our prsidential election came down one sate where the brother of the man running f president was the governor of e state. so we have our probms, too. pete: th statements ominated the cerage of her trip back he. overshadowing t reason she was there. you ju returned, janine. did it feel at way for you overhere? did these comments ovrshadow what she was up to? >> ithink it ju overshaded the things her. bureally over there people were ver focused on her trip there. i think that theommentators here got cfused and thought it was the califrnia primary instead of te congo and there was all these poitics going on. but reay, they stayed on meage. and to give little bit of the setti for that commenabout bill clnton, we were -- it was 100 degrees in in a roo and getting hostile questis from the audience. and more stile than anywhere el on the trip. and the student ked her about a chinese lo and said wha does mr. clint think through the mouth of mrs.clinton? and she was offended by it an thght it was condescending

and her feminism spoke o. but because bil clinton landed in north korea a we lande in keny and eclipsed s in h beginning that verybody seized on this thatshe's mad at bill. but that's all it wa and it became this mar frenzy here. >> the initi explanation was this w not the question that the translatormistranslate. was it the qstion? >> yes it was th question. we don't know y he asked it but he sd it twice. and she understoothe question that way. at first the stte department i ink seeing what was happenin on cable new here, tried to spin it that it ws actuallyhe ant -- iwas misranslated. the second explanation w he meant to say president obama. none of thatwas true. ey said he apologized to hr buti didn't se it. >> maybe the doside of having a celebrity fosecretary of state, at there is all the sort of unreated intrests in what she has tsay and do, but i'm wonring, did her celebrity and star wer work for h and for us. plicy as

she went tough africa? >> we're going to now the answer to tat dfinitively onlyin a few months if we see any of the initiativesshe laid on the table actually ppen. but i catell that you everywheree went, they turned out numbers that i neve saw before with ecretary rce. it was eally like a show. people waing for hours to.their cture taken with er -- for hours tohave their picture taken wth her. th angolan ministe fell in loveith her. her just beg her had an mpact. it's a distraction back here on fox and msnbc and elsewhereut the she had real star ower. >> aong trip. what washe strategic rationale between spending te in africa and so man other hotspots? >> youmentioned ol. is ia to counter growing chinese vestment -- is that tcounter growing chines investment there? >> youee chinese developmnt everywhere. they are doi deals where we'll build you a tadium, a road. you give us exclusive ning contracts. shdidn't go that far but sh was the first one to go ango, the first seretary of state to do hat.

same wit nigeria. e went -- thepeg wasa trade conference inkenya at the benning. and she waed to go to africa and she sa look, i g powerful envoys like ichard holbok and george mitell working in paistan andisrael full-timehich enables me to go with my press on a 11-day trip toafrica. certnly it's a new kind of diplomacy that we havet seen before. >> based on hat you saw n the trip, can you fill inmore of the blanks on hw she operates as sretary of state

>> but what wedo know s he has been surprised athow bad things he gotten in afghanistan. along with all of hisaides. they think things ve dgraded furthethan he anticipated. so i think whas happened here is he broughin a lot of outside the box thirst. people wn they come bac and eave government service, temporary government servi to ommission us to take part in is report, they're speaking freely to the ress and we're geing from themthe fact th more troops are needed and that's their recomndation to him. i don't think he's off mesge but i thnk the timing has gotten skewed hereith this whole dete about health care and gate and let's not tlk about troop lels yet. >> what's the ux of it here? why is the tiban getting stronger again? >> i think the main reasons. basicay they have got a sanctuary in pakistan. 've said that for a longtime but sanctuary lows them to regrp but go to school on ur operations and how opeate. we've derresourced afghanistan in ter of money and troops from th very beginning a that's still the case. ve underresourced in terms

troops. and one ofhe advisors tld me that the amounof corruption in the afhan governmnt is grievous malfeasanc from pety hakedowns of afan people on the reet by police to really sort of diverting governnt funds the top. and it's losing any chnce the gornment has to win the populace to their side. pete: there as been public opion polling n pakistan. what wil it showfor karzai's ances? >> he is ove the second most popular candidate. 26%f 44. so assuming h will win. again, e doesn't get50%. the's going to be this runoff and peoplere worried thatas you have sn in other electis in africa and other aces, there could b violence, some of th ndidates cod say there was a rigged lection. so i think the ssumption ishe will win. the question isill he get at 50%. ete: the election is nxt week? >> thursday. pete: that wl do i forus tonight. i'm pete willis. gwen ifill will be back ext week but before we go, he has

a special ssage about next week's program. gwen: we want to hear rom you. congress left townith more questions an answers about the future of health ce reform. what do you want to ow? send us you questions to washgtonweek@pbs.org and we'll tackle the in a special heth care reporters roundtab next week. see yothen. download our weekly podcast and take us wih you. it's the whington week podct at "washingt week" online at pbs.org. >> "shington week" was produced by weta hich is solely resnsible for its content. corporate funding for washington weeis provided by -- >> we kn why we're ere.

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