dr. nancy schneiderman both of msnbc. first you, rachel, the stakes tonight? >> the stakes tonight are whether or not the president can turn his personal popularity into the thing that bolsters this thorny, political issue that has stymied so many presidents for so many generations now, whether he can make this something that seems like the kind of thing that the president obama who americans still like and can therefore get done, rather than this issue to which has been attached so much fear in politics over the years. >> doctor, the health impact of the speech tonight on our public health? >> the health impact is huge because we can't sustain what we have. we know that. i've never met a doctor who thinks we're in good shape now. i think the challenge is to tell the american public this isn't big government coming in to strongarm you. this is basically looking at health care and access and affordability in a very american way, that is that we all have a shared concern here. >> let me ask you, rachel, tonight as this debate goes on do you have a sense it's bec

dr. nancy schneiderman both of msnbc. first you, rachel, the stakes tonight?ident can turn his personal popularity into the thing that bolsters this thorny, political issue that has stymied so many presidents for so many generations now, whether he can make this something that seems like the kind of thing that the president obama who americans still like and can therefore get done, rather than this issue to which has been attached so much fear in politics over the years. >> doctor, the health impact of the speech tonight on our public health? >> the health impact is huge because we can't sustain what we have. we know that. i've never met a doctor who thinks we're in good shape now. i think the challenge is to tell the american public this isn't big government coming in to strongarm you. this is basically looking at health care and access and affordability in a very american way, that is that we all have a shared concern here. >> let me ask you, rachel, tonight as this debate goes on do you have a sense it's becoming more partisan as the dates dwindle down towa

dr. nancy schneiderman. i want to get to the health care issue but let me go first to the news value. it seems the president may have stepped on his own headline tonight in the sense that what he just said about the gates case up in massachusetts saying it was an example of profiling is going to be a bigger story tomorrow. >> i think so because he didn't make much news on health care and on the emotional issue of race in america there is no more important witness than barack obama president of the united states. for him to basically back skip gates the professor from harvard and skip gates' view of what happened up in cambridge and say race still haunts us even though he is proof of otherwise, i think was a deep moment. and the kind that people tune into barack obama expecting to see as opposed to the previous 50 minutes that was a combination of the code of federal regulations and the three-card monty game. >> because i do believe the matter of whether professor gates turned over his i.d. right away is in dispute. if that's the case he has a much better case. clearly the president as

dr. nancy schneiderman. i want to get to the health care issue but let me go first to the news value. it seems the president may have stepped on his own headline tonight in the sense that what he just said about the gates case up in massachusetts saying it was an example of profiling is going to be a bigger story tomorrow. >> i think so because he didn't make much news on health care and on the emotional issue of race in america there is no more important witness than barack obama president of the united states. for him to basically back skip gates the professor from harvard and skip gates' view of what happened up in cambridge and say race still haunts us even though he is proof of otherwise, i think was a deep moment. and the kind that people tune into barack obama expecting to see as opposed to the previous 50 minutes that was a combination of the code of federal regulations and the three-card monty game. >> because i do believe the matter of whether professor gates turned over his i.d. right away is in dispute. if that's the case he has a much better case. clearly the president as